A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
@emptysqua.re
Senior Staff Research Engineer in the MongoDB Distributed Systems Research Group. Photographer, Gunks climber, Zen Buddhist. Blog: https://emptysqua.re
The Humanoid Lesson, or, Will AI Leave Anything for Database Researchers to Do? emptysqua.re/blog/review-...
The Humanoid Lesson, or, Will AI Leave Anything for Database Researchers to Do?
A review of 'What Happens When the Model Eats the Stack? Rethinking the Research Agenda for Data Agents to Withstand the Bitter Lesson'.
emptysqua.re
For the MongoDB Research blog I wrote about our 12-year history of testing that all our drivers in different programming languages all conform to the same specifications, using a YAML-based interpreted test language: www.mongodb.com/company/rese...
How to test that a dozen MongoDB drivers, in a dozen languages, conform to a dozen specs
MongoDB has maintained a dozen drivers for over a decade. How do we ensure they conform to the same specs? Read about our wrong turns, and the method that worked.
mongodb.com
I’m focusing for a while on the photos I can take with two feet on the ground: I’m taking portraits of people hanging out at the base of the cliff, instead of ascending a rope to take photos of them while they’re climbing. emptysqua.re/blog/crag-po...
Crag Portraits
Photos of friends climbing in the Gunks.
emptysqua.re
On today's episode of the Bug Bash podcast, Jesse Jiryu Davis (@emptysqua.re), Senior Staff Research Engineer at MongoDB, joins Carl Sverre (@f0a.org) to talk about MongoDB's journey with formal verification – and his own.
Replication Before Raft: 15 Years of Correctness at MongoDB
AI makes writing code faster, but shouldn’t it make software better, too? Today, Jesse Jiryu Davis, Senior Staff Research Engineer at MongoDB joins Carl Sverre to discuss why the time saved by AI…
youtu.be
According to legend, Zen’s Sixth Ancestor was chosen in a poetry contest. I discuss the facts behind the legend, and the role of ambition and jealousy in Zen practice. emptysqua.re/blog/huineng...
Huineng Didn't Win the Poetry Contest
According to legend, Zen's Sixth Ancestor was chosen in a poetry contest. Here are the facts behind the legend, and the role of ambition in practice.
emptysqua.re
How does MongoDB test that our dozen drivers conform to a dozen specs in a dozen programming languages? emptysqua.re/blog/polyglo...
The Polyglot's Dilemma: Conformance Testing a Dozen Specs in as Many Languages
At MongoDB we implement the same protocols in many programming languages. How do we test that all the implementations match the specs?
emptysqua.re
If you use Zotero and you keep accidentally importing the same files, Zotero's builtin duplicate-detector won't catch them all. I've released a new version of my duplicate-finder plugin so you can clean up your library: github.com/ajdavis/zote...
Releases · ajdavis/zotero-duplicates-plugin
Zotero plugin to find duplicate parent items by PDF hash and title similarity - ajdavis/zotero-duplicates-plugin
github.com
Fun fact: I drafted most of the original unified test runner spec from a quarantine hotel in Taiwan circa 2020. 😷
A. Jesse Jiryu Davis@emptysqua.re · 2mo agoISSRE just accepted our paper, "The Polyglot's Dilemma: Conformance Testing a Dozen Specs in as Many Languages." We describe how we test that MongoDB drivers conform to their specifications, using a custom test language. Check it out, it's only 6 pages: arxiv.org/abs/2608.18039
ISSRE just accepted our paper, "The Polyglot's Dilemma: Conformance Testing a Dozen Specs in as Many Languages." We describe how we test that MongoDB drivers conform to their specifications, using a custom test language. Check it out, it's only 6 pages: arxiv.org/abs/2608.18039
Every year, database research papers have more benchmarks, taking up more of the paper: more charts, more words, more effort. Let's stop this wasteful arms race and get back to fundamental research. emptysqua.re/blog/lets-no...
Let's Not Waste Time on Excessive Benchmarking
Database research papers keep adding benchmarks every year, crowding out fundamental new research: stats from analyzing 800 published papers.
emptysqua.re
PSA: Command Strips never last. Whatever's dear and precious to you will someday fall and smash to pieces.
Chomsky: Recursion is fundamental to producing and parsing language. LLM researchers: Nah, just add more parameters. NY Times: "Colorado Governor Fires Officials Who Opposed Freeing Election Denier."
My dharma talk about my estranged, lying father has been featured in @tricyclemag.bsky.social tricycle.org/article/the-...
The Kid Is Not My Son
Recounting experiences with his estranged father, a Zen student presents a dharma talk on the karma of lying.
tricycle.org
My recap of the SIGMOD 2026 database conference: SIGMOD 2026 recap: emptysqua.re/blog/sigmod-...
SIGMOD 2026 Recap
My notes from the database conference in Bangalore.
emptysqua.re
Trip report: what I saw and did in Bengaluru/Bangalore. I'm waiting in the airport to fly home right now. emptysqua.re/blog/bengalu...
Bengaluru
Trip report of a week in India's tech capital.
emptysqua.re
My review of "Scalable Leader Leases For Multi Consensus Groups in CockroachDB", this one was tough for me to grok. emptysqua.re/blog/review-...
Review: Scalable Leader Leases For Multi Consensus Groups in CockroachDB
A difficult paper about a real cloud database's complex and evolving architecture.
emptysqua.re
No, *this* is what they took from you -- small cars with physical buttons! marc-newson.com/ford-021c-co...
Ford 021C Concept Car | Marc Newson
Marc Newson has been described as one of the most influential designers of his generation. He has worked across an extremely wide range of disciplines, and his clients include some of the best-known a...
marc-newson.com
Nepal trek trip report: photos, videos, daily stats, packing list. emptysqua.re/blog/nepal-t...
Nepal trek
Two days visiting Kathmandu temples, then four days walking up to Poon Hill and down through the Annapurna foothills.
emptysqua.re
Weird stuff going on at the MongoDB NYC office lately....
TLA+ is the gold standard for specifying distributed systems, but the syntax is a bear. This isn't a problem anymore, AI can write specs for you! But you still need to understand temporal logic. Here's a 20-minute intro to TLA+ for the LLM era: emptysqua.re/blog/intro-t...
Intro to TLA+ for the LLM Era: Prompt Your Way to Victory
You can go far without writing TLA+ syntax now, but you still need to understand temporal logic.
emptysqua.re
My father’s dishonesty was frustrating and disappointing to many people, but I think he got the worst of it. Here’s a dharma talk I gave to New Paltz Zen Center and Village Zendo on May 10, 2026. emptysqua.re/blog/the-kid...
The Kid Is Not My Son
My father's dishonesty was frustrating and disappointing to many people, but I think he got the worst of it.
emptysqua.re
"Nothing is permanent, your printer is low on ink, Chrome will restart in 3 days." --Lord Buddha
Our worst fears have come to pass: AI does all the creative thinking, humans spend our days on two-factor auth.
When are we gonna have Star Peace, man? You ever think about that?
My notes from this year's Antithesis BugBash conference, about software verification and distributed systems: emptysqua.re/blog/notes-f...
Antithesis BugBash Conference 2026
Notes from the 2026 conference on autonomous testing and software correctness.
emptysqua.re
