[411111111111111]

What gives you the confidence that it's going on circles? I cannot see our industry repeating the mantra that NoSQL solves all our persistence problems ever again. There are use cases for them, but not everything is a good fit and I'm pretty sure we found that out as an industry.

I'm sure there are always going to be individuals that will claim that they're better at everything, but that doesn't really mean anything. There are people that believe in a flat earth as well after all

[coliveira]

The cycles don't happen exactly. But I'm pretty sure they will come up with something new that in the end is the same as NoSQL and give it a trendy name, so young developers will believe they found gold and run with it... It is just the way these things keep happening.

[regularfry]

The cycles are longer than you're imagining. Relational database folk have been railing against the incursions of one generation of non-relational database type or another since at least the 1980's.

[smackeyacky]

Actually, relational databases are the relative newcomers. The limitations of things like CODASYL were well known to 1960s programmers and Codd's relational model sought to address them.

Why the non-relational databases keep getting reinvented has been a bit of a mystery when there is already a rich history of development to look to. I get the feeling a lot of the industry isn't much into history, especially of pre-micro computer systems.

Network databases, key-value stores, graph databases, commercial offerings like Pick... you'd think the NoSQL people would have looked into it all before proclaiming their new found solutions, but apparently not.

[scns]

"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - Sir Winston Churchill

He is paraphrasing: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

That inspired René Magritte to paint this: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/those-who-cannot-remember...

Making the connection to events in our lifetime: https://hankeringforhistory.com/those-who-cannot-remember-th...

(edit) Some more reflections on it: https://blog.rtcx.net/remember

[scns]

Interesting, you wrote circles but OP wrote cycles, which can be circular, sinuslike, shaped like a sawtooth/ramp-wave (LISPs AI-winter anyone?) or even deformed variations with a bit of randomness or reinforcing patterns in them. Hypecycles and speculation bubbles come to mind.

This reminded me of the writings of a german Philsopher, Heidegger maybe? The proposition was, that development happens in cycles similar to a pendulum swinging while moving upwards. Thesis and Antithesis leading to Synthesis.

[mr_toad]

> the mantra that NoSQL solves all our persistence problems ever again.

That argument was more usually a straw man than a good faith belief.

On the other hand the belief that SQL will solve all our problems seems to be legitimately held by some people.