Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

Nobody works on an open-source project forever—eventually, people move on. So of course today's Postgres contributors want to see more developers join the project, pick up the torch, and continue to make Postgres amazing. Hence the importance of mentorship. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, PostgreSQL major contributor and committer Robert Haas shares how he learned the ropes in Postgres by channeling “what would Tom Lane do” during patch reviews; why he launched the new PostgreSQL Hackers Mentoring program; and the intellectually stimulating care and feeding it takes to make Postgres thrive.Links mentioned in this episode:Podcast episode: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman  Slide: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres, including new mentoring programBlog post: New Mentoring Program for Code Contributors in Postgres, by Robert HaasBlog post: Postgres Mentoring Program Updates, by Robert Haas Discord invite for PostgreSQL Hacker Mentoring server: https://discord.gg/bx2G9KWyrYBio: Margo Seltzer, the PGConf.dev 2024 keynote speakerVideo: PGConf.dev 2024 panel discussion about Making PostgreSQL Hacking More Inclusive with Amit Langote, Masahiko Sawada, Melanie Plageman, & Robert HaasMailing list: PostgreSQL HackersUpcoming Conference: PGConf.dev 2025, the annual PostgreSQL Development Conference happening in Montreal Canada on May 13-16, 2025Blog: Postgres committer Tomas Vondra’s Blog - Look for [PATCH IDEA] Video of Talk: CMUDB Database talk about PostgreSQL Optimizer Methodology, by Robert HaasPodcast episode: How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with David RowleyCalendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep25 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Mar 12, 2025 with guest Dawn Wages of the Python developer community

March 5th 2005 at 3 PM in Copenhagen. That’s the exact time and place Daniel Gustafsson’s career took an unexpected turn, pivoting from operating systems to databases. At LinuxForum that day, Daniel had planned to meet up with the FreeBSD community, but a chance session about Postgres by Bruce Momjian completely blew his mind. By the time Daniel was on the train back to Malmö, he was already compiling Postgres. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, Postgres major contributor and committer Daniel Gustafsson of Microsoft walks us through how he got his start as a developer and in Postgres—starting with his earliest computing memories of a hulking steel box in his family’s living room in Sweden. Also part of Daniel’s story: guitar tuning software. And curl!Links mentioned in this episode:Wikipedia: ABC 80Wikipedia: mSQLWikipedia: PCBoard BBS (bulletin board system) applicationConference back in 2010: CHAR(10) – Clustering, HA and Replication ConferenceWikipedia: IRIX operating systemInternet Archive Wayback Machine link: LinuxForum Conference Agenda from March 5, 2005 with Bruce Momjian’s 3:00pm talk about Postgres Podcast: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik FearingConference: Nordic PGDay 2025 to happen Mar 18th in CopenhagenConference: All Things Open 2025 to happen Oct 12-14 in Raleigh NCConference: PGConf.dev 2025 to happen May 13-16 in Montreal, CanadaCFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 9 2025 (it’s a virtual event)Slides from PGConfEU 2024 Talk: What’s in a Postgres major release? An analysis of contributions in v17 timeframeVideo of PGConf EU 2024 Talk: Analysis of contributions in the v17 timeframe, by Claire GiordanoBook recommendation: The Dragon Book, a.k.a. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and ToolsBook recommendation: The Purple Book (or, Wizard Book), a.k.a. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)Book recommendation: The Practice of Programming by Kernighan & PikeCalendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep24 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Feb 05, 2025 with guest Robert Haas

What’s it like to lead Postgres engineering at a cloud giant like Microsoft Azure? In this episode of Talking Postgres, host Claire Giordano chats with Affan Dar, VP of Engineering for Postgres at Microsoft. Affan’s team is behind the Azure Database for PostgreSQL managed service and also contributes extensively to the upstream Postgres open-source project. Affan walks us through his career journey—from his first job as an embedded systems engineer, to navigating the shift between engineering and management, to leading one of the largest Postgres engineering teams in the world. He shares the strategy behind Microsoft’s investments into Postgres, explores how massive cloud fleets are influencing the future of Postgres, and shares what keeps him up at night.Links mentioned in this episode:Docs: Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible ServerGitHub repo for Durable Task Framework, the first open source project Affan worked onGitHub repo for pgvector open source extension to PostgresDocs: Elastic cluster feature in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server, based on CitusGitHub repo for Citus open sourceBlog post: Postgres horizontal scaling with elastic clusters on Azure Database for PostgreSQL, by Adam WølkGitHub repo for DiskANN open sourceDocs: How to enable and use the DiskANN index for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible ServerBlog post: Think of language models like ChatGPT as a “calculator for words” by Simon WillisonBlog post: What’s new with Postgres at Microsoft (updated 2x/year typically)Video of Talk at Microsoft Ignite: Improving accuracy of GenAI apps with Azure Database for PostgreSQL by Maxim Lukiyanov (Microsoft), Jay Yang (UBS), & Orhun Oezbek (UBS)CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 9 2025Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep23 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Jan 15, 2025 with guest Daniel Gustafsson

Have you ever achieved something remarkable because someone planted an idea in your mind? In this episode of Talking Postgres, host Claire Giordano talks with Andrew Atkinson—a Rails developer and Postgres user whose journey to becoming a published author began with a simple seed of inspiration. Andrew’s story started with an internal presentation on how to tackle tricky scalability challenges in Rails, grew into a Postgres conference talk at PGConf NYC—and ultimately evolved into his book, High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails. Also in this episode: what does cheese have to do with Postgres? Is writing a good way to think? What’s the connection between Postgres and swimming to Antarctica? And which chapter of his book does Andrew love the most?Links mentioned in this episode:Book: High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails by Andrew Atkinson E-book Discount: Use discount code TalkingPostgres to get 35% off discount of Andrew’s bookBlog post: Readers get their copies of High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails by Andrew AtkinsonBook: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer by Lynne CoxTalk Abstract: PGConf NYC 2021 talk by Andrew Atkinson Slides: PGConf NYC 2021 talk on How We Made PG Fitter, Happier, More Productive by Andrew AtkinsonVideo: POSETTE 2024 talk about SaaS on Rails on PostgreSQL by Andrew Atkinson  Ruby User Groups: List of upcoming Ruby user groupsBlog post: Writing is Thinking, an annotated twitter thread by Steve Sinofsky Talking Postgres podcast Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman Talking Postgres podcast Ep20: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David RowleyCFP: Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day 2025 (P2D2) CFP open until Nov 23, 2024CFP: FOSDEM PGDay 2025 CFP open until Nov 29, 2024CFP: Nordic PGDay 2025 CFP open until Dec 31, 2024CFP: pgDay Paris 2025 CFP open until Dec 31, 2024 CFP: PGConf.dev 2025 CFP open until Jan 01, 2025CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 09, 2025Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep22 of Talking Postgres podcast

It was not Tom Lane’s plan to become a computer person. Tom’s plan was to be a pinball machine designer. And yet for the last 26 years Tom has been one of the most prolific engineering contributors to Postgres. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, PostgreSQL luminary Tom Lane walks us through how he got his start as a developer and in Postgres—including his time working on desktop calculators at HP. And how he has code running on Mars (and most of us don’t.) During Tom’s PhD studies at Carnegie Mellon, nobody told him databases were so interesting! It wasn’t until Tom needed a database to store stock trading information that he first got to work with Postgres. And that’s when Tom’s 26-year-long (and counting) Postgres story began.Links mentioned in this episode:Wikipedia: Tom Lane (computer scientist)Wikipedia: HP 9800 seriesCMU CS Department Coke Machine historyWikipedia: Honeywell 316Wikipedia: Teletype Model 33Wikipedia: Hydra (operating system)Wikipedia: William WulfWikipedia: Jon Bentley (computer scientist)Wikipedia: Mary Shaw (computer scientist)Wikipedia: UsenetGitHub: postgres commit by tglsfdcArticle: The Mars 2020 Engineering Cameras and Microphone on the Perseverance Rover: A Next-Generation Imaging System for Mars Exploration by J.N. Maki et al.Blog: Open Source on Mars: Community powers NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter by Klint FinleyPostgreSQL Mailing List message: pg_upgrade --check fails to warn about abstimePostgreSQL: Core Teampostgresql.git: commitdiffBlog: Proton to Fastmail by Tristan PartinTalking Postgres Ep18: How I got started as a dev (& in Postgres) with David RowleyPGConf EU 2024: Conference SchedulePGConf NYC 2024: Conference ScheduleTalking Postgres Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie PlagemanPostgreSQL: CommitfestsWikipedia: Cutting room floorPostgreSQL Mailing List message: Straight-from-the-horses-mouth deptPostgreSQL Mailing List message: [PATCH] Extend ALTER OPERATOR to support adding commutator, negator, hashes, and merges

Melanie Plageman, a Postgres committer and key contributor at Microsoft, shares her journey from IT consulting to open-source development, igniting her passion for systems engineering. She emphasizes the significance of mentorship and community support in navigating the Postgres landscape. The conversation dives into the art of accepting feedback and 'killing your darlings' in programming. Melanie also highlights the Postgres community's new mentoring initiative aimed at recognizing diverse contributions, advocating for empathy and collaboration among developers.

Ever wonder how driving a forklift at a cheese factory could lead to a career in databases? Postgres committer David Rowley joined Claire Giordano on this episode of the Talking Postgres podcast (formerly Path To Citus Con) to share his story about how he got started as a developer and in Postgres. Could an unexpected job lead to your dream career? Does speeding things up give you a buzz? How could an idea from a hike become a Postgres patch? And what is the importance of doing the research before you submit a proposal to the Postgres mailing list? Also discussed: resources available to start your Postgres journey such as books, blogs, videos, and the pgsql-hackers mailing list.Links mentioned in this episode:Wikipedia: Acorn ComputersPostgreSQL Mailing List Archives: David’s first email: Possible problem with EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM TIMESTAMP)Google Usenet: Larry Page’s Java question from Jan 7, 1996Blog: Speeding up sort performance in Postgres 15 by David RowleyBlog: What’s new in the Postgres 16 query planner / optimizer by David RowleyBook: The Art of PostgreSQL by Dimitri FontaineBook: The Art of SQL by Stéphane Faroult, Peter RobsonBook: The Art of Writing Efficient Programs: An advanced programmer's guide to efficient hardware utilization and compiler optimizations using C++ examples by Fedor G. PikusX: Simon Willison’s tweetBlog by Tony FinchBook: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason CurreyGitHub Issue: Coughing in my microphone causes segfaultPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: OverviewPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-generalPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-hackersVideo: Making your patch more committable by Melanie Plageman at PGConf.EU 2023Cheese company: Seriously CheddarTalking Postgres Ep04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas MunroTalking Postgres Ep08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki LinnakangasCal invite for next Ep19 of Talking Postgres with Melanie PlagemanCal invite for next Ep 20 of Talking Postgres with Tom Lane

Have you ever eavesdropped on other people’s conversations? Former co-host Pino de Candia joins Claire Giordano on this episode of Talking Postgres (formerly Path To Citus Con) to share their experience on podcasting about Postgres. Is listening to a podcast the next best thing to being in the hallway track at a conference? Does it bring the community together? How beneficial has it been to have a parallel chat while recording live? What is the “sweet spot” for the number of guests to have per episode? Is structure important for a podcast? Also discussed: this podcast’s rename, a walk down memory lane reflecting on the past 16 episodes, and shout-outs to other podcasts about Postgres.Links mentioned in this episode:Cal invite for next Ep18 of Talking Postgres with David RowleyPodcast: Talking Postgres Talking Postgres Ep01: Working in public on open source with Simon Willison & Marco SlotEp02: How to get Postgres ready for the next 100 million usersEp03: Why giving talks at Postgres conferences matterswith Álvaro Herrera and Boriss MejíasVideo: Postgres Storytelling: What’s going on with Synchronous Replication | POSETTE 2024 by Boriss MejíasVideo: Postgres Storytelling: Support in the Darkest Hour | Citus Con 2023, by Boriss MejíasEp04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas MunroEp05: My favorite ways to learn more about PostgreSQL with Grant Fritchey & Ryan BoozVideo: Fibonacci Spirals and Ways to Contribute to Postgres—Beyond Code | Citus Con 2022, by Claire GiordanoEp06: You're probably already using Postgres with Chelsea Dole & Floor DreesWikipedia: Object–relational mappingVideo: How to work with other people | POSETTE 2024, by Floor Drees and Jimmy AngelakosEp07: Why people care about PostGIS and Postgres with Paul Ramsey & Regina ObeEp08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki LinnakangasSatya Nadella’s LinkedIn post about Andres Freund’s xz backdoor discoveryEp09: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik FearingWikipedia: Advent of CodeEp10: My Journey into Postgres Monitoring with Lukas Fittl & Rob TreatEp11: My Journey into Performance Benchmarking with Jelte Fennema-Nio & Marco SlotEp12: From developer to PostgreSQL specialist with Derk van VeenEp13: Spinning up on Postgres & AI with Arda AytekinEp14: Becoming expert at using PostgreSQL with Chris EllisVideo: Electric Elephants | pgDay Paris 2024, by Chris EllisEp15: My Journey to Explaining Explain with Michael ChristofidesPodcast: Postgres FMEp16: The Making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres with Teresa Giacomini & Aaron WislangPodcast: Scaling PostgreSQLPodcast: Postgres FM Ep99 with guest Claire Giordano: Sponsoring the communityPodcast: Hacking PostgresPlaylist: 5mins of Postgres

It’s not a conference unless you can confer, right? POSETTE organizers Teresa Giacomini and Aaron Wislang join Claire Giordano on the Path To Citus Con* podcast to share backstage perspectives on the making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres. How do you feel about captions: love or hate? Should livestream talks be pre-recorded or presented live? Why rename from Citus Con to POSETTE? Where did the inspiration for POSETTE come from? And can the hallway track at a conference actually be fun—if it is virtual? Also discussed: Avett Brothers lyrics, the surprising number of POSETTE speakers with chickens, and the existential question of whether the work in organizing a conference is worth it.*[Update: July 2024] Path To Citus Con has been renamed to Talking Postgres. All of the past podcast episodes from Path To Citus Con—now called Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano—can be found here: https://talkingpostgres.comLinks mentioned in this episode: Blog post: What’s in a name? About the naming of POSETTE: An Event for PostgresFOSDEM: the conference whose name inspired the POSETTE namePlaylist of all 42 talks from POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024Playlist of the 4 unique livestreams from POSETTE 2024 CFP is open: PGDay Lowlands 2024 Call for Papers will close July 9, 2024Virtual conference that POSETTE organizers were inspired by: P99 ConfDiscord: Microsoft Open Source Discord, Home for virtual hallway track for #posetteconfAdam Wølk’s speaker page for POSETTESpeaker interview with Polina Bungina at POSETTEBlog post: About Talk Selection for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024, by Claire GiordanoBlog post: Building the PGConf.dev Programme, by Paul RamseypgDay Paris 2024 note about talk selection processKeynote: All The Postgres Things at Microsoft, POSETTE edition, by Charles FeddersenKeynote: The Open Source Geospatial Community, PostGIS, & Postgres, by Regina ObeKeynote: Why I love open source development & what I learned from K8s, by Sarah NovotnyKeynote: A Walking Tour of PostgreSQL, by Thomas MunroLyrics from The Perfect Space by The Avett BrothersVideo: Lessons Learned benchmarking & profiling distributed PostgreSQL, by Lotte FeliusVideo: Postgres Storytelling: Support in the Darkest Hour | Citus Con 2023, by Boriss Mejías Video: Postgres Storytelling: What's going on with Synchronous Replication?, by Boriss MejíasVideo: Vindicating ZFS with PostgreSQL: Unleashing the Power of Scalability, includes a bit of jazz music by Federico CampoliBlog post: Ultimate Guide to POSETTE: An Event for Postgres, 2024 editionSocial post: Tweet by Kelsey Hightower with advice to conference organizersVideo from PGConfEU 2023: So you want a PGDay in your city, by Henrietta Dombrovskaya & Teresa GiacominiBlog post: The Story Behind the Activity Book for Postgres, by Teresa Giacomini

Did you know that sometimes the fastest way of doing something is not having to do it at all? In this episode of Path To Citus Con*, the podcast for developers who love Postgres, Michael Christofides joins Claire Giordano to chat about his journey to explaining explain (or should we say EXPLAIN!?) Michael shared his origin story as a mathematician and his first experience with Postgres before walking us through co-founding a Postgres company and now co-hosting a podcast. Like many in the Postgres community, he is opinionated in the best way possible! We even learned about his passion for BUFFERS and why he believes everyone should use them. This session also dives into Michael’s belief in the importance of Postgres documentation. Because great documentation can be worth its weight in Gold, especially when the going gets tough.*[Update: July 2024] Path To Citus Con has been renamed to Talking Postgres. All of the past podcast episodes from Path To Citus Con—now called Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano—can be found here: https://talkingpostgres.comLinks mentioned in this episode:Schedule for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024Michael Christofides' company, pgMustardBlog: Where our name came from by Michael ChristofidesWiki: Using EXPLAIN X: Nikolay SamokhvalovVideo: Lightning Talks at pgDay Paris 2024Blog: What’s new with Postgres at Microsoft (August 2023) by Claire GiordanoBlog: Faster PostgreSQL Counting by Joe NelsonGitHub: pg_docs_bot (browser extension)GitHub Docs: About GitHub Copilot ChatDocumentation: Using EXPLAINGlossary: EXPLAIN Glossary by Michael ChristofidesVideo: EXPLAIN Explained by Josh BerkusBlog: Reading a Postgres EXPLAIN ANALYZE Query Plan by Caleb HearthBlog: Explaining the unexplainable by DepeszPostgreSQL execution plan visualizer, explain.dalibo.comBlog: Planet PostgreSQLNews: Postgres WeeklyPlaylist: 5mins of PostgresPodcast: Postgres FM podcastCal invite for next Ep16 of Path To Citus Con podcast with Aaron Wislang & Teresa Giacomini