Make it fast

Why queries and jobs are slow, from the hardware to the plan, and how to prove a speed-up is real.

1. 1Physical Substrate & Performance LawsWhy do trade-offs exist at all?
2. 2Core Data StructuresHow do we choose a data structure when the real cost is set by the hardware, not by Big-O?
3. 3Storage: Physical OrganizationWhat should sit next to what, given that I must decide at write time and find out at read time?
4. 4IndexingWhen does a separate "where is it?" structure pay for itself, and what does it cost to keep it true?
5. 5Query ProcessingWhy can one question be answered by plans whose costs differ by a factor of ten thousand, and what does each operator force the engine to do?
6. 6Query Planning & OptimizationHow does a system choose a plan for a question when the facts that decide the best plan are unknown until the plan has run?
7. 7Execution Engine RuntimeOnce a query plan is chosen, why does the machine still sit idle, and what does each mechanism of a query runtime pay to buy that idle time back?
8. 8Memory & Resource ManagementWho is allowed to hold how much memory, for how long, and what happens to the work when the answer is less than it asked for?
9. 9CachingWhat happens when we deliberately keep a second copy of data that no protocol forces to be correct?
10. 10Measurement & Experimental MethodWhat would have to be true for this number to mean what I think it means?

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