I use them indirectly like I use design patterns. I'm not thinking "Oh, I'm using 3rd NF" or "I'm using Singleton" at work. Instead, when designing databases I'

I use them indirectly like I use design patterns. I'm not thinking "Oh, I'm using 3rd NF" or "I'm using Singleton" at work. Instead, when designing databases I'm thinking about removing duplication (which is the crux of normal forms). However, like proofreading, you can go too far and normalize your database too much, making it hard to work with, so you allow duplication of some fields (hence denormalization). Hope this helps.