Transactions are not an intrinsic part of a storage system. Any storage system can be made transactional: Redis, S3, the filesystem, etc. Delta Lake and Orleans demonstrated techniques to make S3 (or cloud storage in general) transactional. Epoxy demonstrated techniques to make Redis (and any other system) transactional. And of course there's always good old Two-Phase Commit. If you don't want to read those papers, I wrote about a simplified implementation of Delta Lake and also wrote about a simplified MVCC implementation over a generic key-value storage layer. It is both the beauty and the burden of transactions that they are not intrinsic to a storage system. Postgres and MySQL and SQLite have transactions. But you don't need to use them. It isn't possible to require you to use transactions. Many developers, myself a few years ago included, do not know why you should use them. (Hint: read Designing Data Intensive Applications.) And you can take it even further by ignoring the transaction layer of an existing transactional database and implement your own transaction layer as Convex has done (the Epoxy paper above also does this). It isn't entirely clear that you have a lot to lose by implementing your own transaction layer since the indexes you'd want on the version field of a value would only be as expensive or slow as any other secondary index in a transactional database. Though why you'd do this isn't entirely clear (I will like to read about this from Convex some time). It's useful to see transaction protocols as another tool in your system design tool chest when you care about consistency, atomicity, and isolation. Especially as you build systems that span data systems. Maybe, as Ben Hindman hinted at the last NYC Systems, even proprietary APIs will eventually provide something like two-phase commit so physical systems outside our control can become transactional too. Transactions are a protocol short new post pic.twitter.com/nTj5LZUpUr — Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) April 20, 2025

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I was so intimidated to go at first, but it is in fact easy and fun to start playing beginner volleyball in New York. The people are so friendly and welcoming that it has been easy to keep playing consistently every week since I started for the first time this August. It's been a great workout and a great way to make friends! The two platforms I've used to find volleyball games are Goodrec and New York Urban. While these platforms may also offer classes and leagues, I mostly use them to play "pickup" games. Pickup games are where you show up and join (or get assigned to) a team to play for an hour or two. Easy to go on your own or with friends. I'm not an expert! My only hope with this post is that maybe it makes trying out volleyball in New York feel a little less intimidating for you! Goodrec With Goodrec you have to use their mobile app. Beginner tier is called "social" on Goodrec. So browse available games until you find one at the level you want to play. You enroll in (buy a place in) sessions individually. Sessions are between 90-120 minutes long. They ask you not to arrive more than 10 minutes early at the gym. When you arrive you tell the gym managers (usually in a desk up front somewhere) you're there for Goodrec and the tier (in case the gym has multiple level games going on at the same time). Then you wait until the Goodrec "host" arrives and they will organize everyone into teams. Goodrec hosts are players who volunteer to organize the games. They'll explain the rules of the game (makes Goodrec very good for beginners) and otherwise help you out. Always say thank you to your host! New York Urban With New York Urban, pickup sessions are called "open play". There is no mobile app, you just use the website to purchase a spot in a session. The sessions are longer and cheaper than Goodrec. But there is no host; players self-organize. The options are more limited too. You play at one of four high schools on either a Friday night or on Sunday. And session slots tend to sell out much more quickly than with Goodrec. Big City Volleyball You can also check out Big City Volleyball but I haven't used it yet. Volo I haven't ever done Volo but I think I've heard it described as "beer league". That even some of the beginner tier sessions with Goodrec and New York Urban are more competitive. But also, Volo is built around leagues so you have to get the timing right. Goodrec's and New York Urban's pickup games make it easy to get started playing any time of year. Making friends It was super awkward to go at first! I went by myself. I didn't know what I was doing. I couldn't remember, and didn't know, many rules. I didn't have court shoes or knee pads. But the Goodrec host system is particularly great for bringing beginners in and making them feel welcome. You have a great time even if you're terrible. The first game I went to, I tried to hang out afterward to meet people. But people either came with their SO or with their friends or by themselves so they all just left immediately or hung out in their group. So you can't just go once and expect to make friends immediately. But if you keep going at the same place and time regularly week over week, you'll see familiar faces. Maybe half the people I play with each week are regulars. If you're friendly you'll start making friends with these people and eventually start going out to bars with them after the games. Improving Even if you find yourself embarrassingly bad at first, just keep going! I'm 29, 6'1, 190lbs and from observation the past 5 months, age, height, and weight have a very indirect relation to playing ability. Most of the people who play are self-taught, especially at the lower tiers I've played at. But some people played for the school team in high school or college. These people are fun to play with and you can learn a lot from them. Most people who are self-taught seem to watch YouTube videos like Coach Donny, helpful for learning how to serve, set, block, etc. Or they take "clinics" (classes) with Goodrec or other platforms. (I have no idea about these, I've never done them before.) At first I played 2 hours a week and I was completely exhausted after the session. Over time it got easier so I started playing 2-3 sessions a week (6-9-ish hours). With practice and consistency (after about 3-4 months), I started playing Intermediate tier with Goodrec and New York Urban. And I don't think I'll play Beginner/Social at all anymore. I still primarily play for fun and for the workout and to meet people. But it's also fun to get better! I played with one person much better than myself in an Intermediate session one time and he mentioned he will probably stop playing Intermediate and only play High Intermediate. He mentioned you get better when you keep pushing yourself to play with better and better players. Good advice!