An Over Engineering Disaster with Macaroons

Explore a cautionary tale of over-engineering in this GopherCon 2018 talk by Tess Rinearson. Delve into the world of macaroons, a decentralized authorization credential designed for distributed systems, and learn about their potential as the future of cross-service authorization. Discover how Rinearson's team eagerly adopted macaroons using a Go implementation, only to face unexpected challenges. Examine the negative impacts on user experience, developer experience, and system availability that resulted from this decision. Gain insights into the allure of macaroons, especially for Go projects, and understand the pitfalls to avoid when implementing new technologies. Uncover the key considerations for Gophers contemplating the use of macaroons and learn from the team's ultimate resolution. This 24-minute presentation offers valuable lessons on balancing innovation with practicality in software engineering, all while exploring the intriguing connection between authorization systems and coconut cookies.