Slow systems are frustrating. They waste time and money. But making consistently great decisions about performance can be easy, if you understand whats going on. This book explains in a clear and thoughtful voice why systems perform the way they do. Its for anybody whos curious about how computer programs and other processes use their time and about what you can do to improve them. Through a mix of personal vignettes and technical use cases, Cary Millsap reviews the process of improving performance and provides best practices for optimizing systems efficiently. Youll learn how to identify the information needed to improve a system, how to find the root causes of performance issues, and how to fix them. Youll also learn how performance optimization is both a skill set and a mindset, and how to develop both over time. If youre a computer professional whose success relies on software that goes fast, by the end of this book youll be able to identify, view, scope, analyze, and remedy performance issues with consistency and confidence.