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S2E1: Andrew Atkinson, Software Engineer and Author

36 min • 4 april 2024

Andrew Atkinson is a Software Engineer who specializes in building high-performance web applications using PostgreSQL and Ruby on Rails. He wrote the book ‘High-Performance PostgreSQL for Rails’, published by Pragmatic Programmers in 2024.

Our discussion with Andrew spans the technical challenges of sharding and the concurrent evolution of Rails and Postgres. We'll pay homage to influential resources like Railscast, debate Rails' database tooling limitations, and discover tips from Andrew's new book.

In this episode we explore:

Why newer developers favor Postgres over MySQL
How Postgres might become a multi-primary database in the future
The complexities of database decisions in a Rails environment
Postgres innovations, such as composite primary keys and common table expressions, being supported from Active Record – the ORM for Ruby on Rails
Key insights from writing ‘High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails’

Links mentioned:

Andrew Atkinson on LinkedIn

‘High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails’ by Andrew Atkinson

Github rideshare

Postgres FM

Andrew Aktkinson’s interview on Postgres FM

Andrew Atkinson’s interview on Remote Ruby

Remote Ruby Podcast