LSM Trees Explained

LSM trees make a deliberate choice: optimize for updates, accept read amplification as the cost.

May 20 • Teiva Harsanyi

7

2

AI for Production

Active incidents can be cognitively brutal.

May 13 • Teiva Harsanyi

7

1

Cache Use Cases Explained

The cache didn't change. The code didn't change. The system grew around the cache, and the cache quietly became load-bearing.

May 6 • Teiva Harsanyi

13

1

4

April 2026

How Linux 7.0 Broke PostgreSQL

Linux 7.0 delivered roughly half the throughput of Linux 6.x on the same hardware and workload.

Apr 29 • Teiva Harsanyi

26

3

5

The Reading Room is Open

And You're Invited

Apr 24 • Teiva Harsanyi

1

Systems Thinking Explained

Your system isn't broken because of bad engineering. It's broken because you're reacting to events without seeing the structure that produces them.

Apr 22 • Teiva Harsanyi

14

4

How an SSD Works

Your SSD doesn't just store data, it relies on quantum physics to do it.

Apr 15 • Teiva Harsanyi

10

1

March 2026

Working on Complex Systems

My Talk at the Monster SCALE Summit 2026

Mar 24 • Teiva Harsanyi

3

3 Bullets and a Call to Action

When communicating via email or chat, people prefer short and memorable messages that do not require too much cognitive effort to process.

Mar 18 • Teiva Harsanyi

6

Build Your Own Key-Value Storage Engine—Week 8

Concurrency

Mar 11 • Teiva Harsanyi

3

February 2026

Build Your Own Key-Value Storage Engine—Week 7

Block-Based SSTables and Indexing

Feb 26 • Teiva Harsanyi

5

January 2026

Build Your Own Key-Value Storage Engine—Week 6

Block-Based SSTables and Indexing

Jan 21 • Teiva Harsanyi

6

1