November 6, 2025
CSS vs SQL: Fight!
From web developer to database developer in 10 years
Front‑end escape has coders cheering and a 'CSS = SQL' mic drop
TLDR: A web dev spent a decade learning in public and refused detours to land a real database job working on Postgres. Commenters cheered the DIY path, roasted JavaScript burnout, debated a “CSS = SQL” quip, and celebrated jumping from manager back to builder as proof career rewrites are real.
A web developer ditched JavaScript grind for deep database work, and the comments section threw a party. The author’s decade-long pivot—side projects, study groups, and refusing “cloud glue” roles—ends with a job on Postgres, the popular open‑source database. Fans love the self‑taught, no‑degree arc; skeptics? Practically none, just a chorus of “consistency wins.” The loudest energy came from burned‑out front‑end folks like pmbanugo, bored of “yet‑another bundler” and eyeing Zig. Others brought receipts with side projects—one linked a tiny database, sboxdb, like, “I’m doing it too!”
Then came the spicy analogy heard round the thread: CharlieDigital’s “If you can wrangle CSS, you can wrangle SQL,” comparing web page styling to database queries. Cue half the room nodding, half clutching pearls, and everyone cracking jokes about selectors vs. SELECT. Career talk also popped: simonw championed the manager‑to‑IC (individual contributor) boomerang, calling it a relief, which sparked “permission granted” vibes for people tired of meetings. Meanwhile, the author’s book clubs, Discords, and coffee meetups got shout‑outs as the real secret sauce—community as curriculum. The vibe? Less gatekeeping, more “build a little thing, then build a bigger thing,” with bonus memes about escaping the JavaScript treadmill and finally learning what SQL (structured query language) actually does.
Key Points
- •The author completed their first year at EnterpriseDB, working on Postgres logical replication technologies.
- •Their team built and maintains pglogical and contributed to community PostgreSQL’s logical replication features.
- •Current work centers on Postgres Distributed (PGD), which supports DDL replication and tunable cluster consistency.
- •A performance issue in 2020 led the author to study indexing via “Use The Index, Luke” and build an in-memory SQL database with indexes.
- •From 2021–2023 they attempted a startup (DataStation) and later joined TigerBeetle as a cofounder for marketing/community, before seeking core database development roles.