Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M2137

Monolith

Monolith
BusinessHigh supportEntrepreneurship
Included
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Refers to an architecture where all functional modules are packaged into a single independent unit. The advantage is simple development and easy debugging; the disadvantage is that as the scale grows, the code becomes extremely complex, difficult to change, and poor in scalability.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

Understand the stages of development. In the early stage of a startup, Monolith is the best choice (fast to run); in the mature stage, it is a hindrance (cannot move). Do not over-pursue microservices early on, nor stubbornly stick to a monolith in the late stage.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

All functions are in the same process/codebase, with local calls, transactional consistency, and simple deployment; the cost is high coupling, any change requires overall redeployment, and as the scale grows, complexity increases sharply and iteration slows down.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

  • link
    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonolithZH · Explicit
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