i love unions in C. they allow you to pack different types of data into the same memory address.

here's an example of an 64-bit string type that you can pass around as a native word on 64-bit systems. it can either be a binmoji or a 6-character null-terminated string.

this enabes the nostrdb metadata table to be super smol. caching reaction counts for any emoji or 6-length string can now be done inplace, only requiring two 64-bit integers worth of storage for each metadata entry, no string tables!

succinct, cache efficient data structures are my happy place