Lessons from a career of cleaning up data dumpster fires. Imagine building a beautiful lake house on a pristine lake with gorgeous mountains in the surrounding distance, and a clean beach front in a relaxing neighborhood. Then in a couple of years, you find cracks in your foundation, the water becomes polluted by chemical runoff, and your property value plummets. This is exactly what happens when you build a data lakehouse poorly. All initial attempts start out well. Users ar