2024-12-18 · Aya Morimoto
Reading plans without becoming a cynic
Explain output as a collaboration tool, not a scoreboard.
Explain plans intimidate newcomers and bore veterans. The middle path is narration: read top-down, note join order, call out rows estimates that look off by an order of magnitude, then stop. Not every plan needs a rewrite.
Pair plans with the question that triggered the query. Product context keeps optimizations grounded. A clever index that breaks an admin report is still a mistake.
We share anonymized plans in mentor reviews with the original question attached. It keeps feedback kind and specific — the same bar we hold for code comments.
Tags: SQL, Mentorship