On: Ask HN: Do you use foreign keys in relational data...

[Izkata]

One example: MySQL table locks. The application can do in parallel what the database can't.

[jve → Izkata]

Locks ensure you get committed data back and not some data that is in-operation and may or may not end being persisted. If you don't care about it: SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED ;

And SQL can do parallel operations too.