Most systems store created_by on almost every table. I removed it almost completely.

At some point, I realised I was doing the same thing everywhere without really knowing why or questioning it. It felt like one of those “standard practices” you inherit without thinking too deeply about. But the more I worked on the system, the more it started to feel wrong. Well, not obviously wrong per se, but subtly useless.

The Default Thinking

The idea behind created_by fields is straightforward:

• You want to know who created a record
• So you store their ID alongside it

It’s simple, cheap, and seems harmless, like a miniature audit detail right there in the record. In some cases it is even necessary:

• purchase_order.created_by
• purchase_order.approved_by

Those fields carry meaning. They are part of the business process.

But then you start seeing it everywhere; that’s where things start to break down.

The Problem Isn’t Storage, It’s Meaning

The issue with created_by isn’t that it exists, it’s that it pretends to answer a question it actually can’t answer well:

“Who did what?”

Let’s say you have:

inventory_item.created_by = user_1_id

What does that really tell you? That user_1 created it… at some point, but that’s all.

It doesn’t tell you:

• who updated it