Track · 2:31 · Liner note
An Index of Small Comforts
A database index is a separate structure that lets the engine find rows by a column's value without scanning the whole table, at the cost of extra storage and slower writes.
Finding one order among fifty million is comfortable only if the database does not read all fifty million. An index is the reason: a separate, ordered structure that points from a value to its rows. An Index of Small Comforts is the list of what it buys you: quick lookups, efficient range scans and cheap uniqueness checks.
It charges rent. Each index uses storage and adds work to every write, so index the columns you actually filter and join on and drop the ones nobody uses. Read the plan to confirm your query is really using what you built.