Comment by wesselbindt

Two of my main CAP theorem pet peeves happen on this page:

- Not realizing it's a very concrete theorem applicable in a very narrow theoretical situation, and that its value lies not in the statement itself but in the way of thinking that goes into the proof.

- Stating it as "pick any two". You cannot pick CA. Under the conditions of the CAP theorem it is immediately obvious that CA implies you have exactly one node. And guess what, then you have P too, because there's no way to partition a single node.

A much more usable statement (which is not a theorem but a rule of thumb) is: there is often a tradeoff between consistency and availability.