Two Hard Problems with Distributed Systems

I wrote this joke exactly 10 years ago:

There are only two hard problems in distributed systems:
2. Exactly-once delivery
1. Guaranteed order of messages
2. Exactly-once delivery

I originally posted this on Twitter, where it went viral. I felt it deserved a new canonical home. It’s probably the one thing I’ll be remembered for most 🤣

It has been quoted in books, conference talks, academic papers and lectures, and t-shirts. (Feel free to quote it. Please send me a link to your thing, or a hard copy if you can.)

Resources:

• The original on X
• Martin Fowler’s list of predecessors
• Repost on Bluesky
• Repost on Mastodon
• Repost on LinkedIn

A selfie with a gentleman at a conference in Denver CO, who made a t-shirt with my distsys joke.

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