This book has been a long time in coming! For years, my colleagues, students, partners, and friends have asked me to take my courseware, technical papers, stories, and how I explain things, and turn them into a book. But it's a massive undertaking that I've put off. I finally relented, and here is the result.

I've spent most of my professional life either teaching others how to fight Oracle performance fires (and even better, avoid them in the first place) or doing the work myself. I still remember my very first assignment. While booking my flight to Round Rock, Texas, I was scared to death, but excited all the same. I was wondering what the client would be like. And I was enjoying getting to know my new colleague and friend for the first time.1 Since then, I've seen grown men and women cry, watched a chief financial officer grab an Oracle salesman by the tie and drag him across the room, visited nearly every continent and 23 countries, eaten things (food is hardly the right word) I won't mention, stayed in hotels fit for kings and the homeless, and enjoyed conversations with people all over the world.

This book is the culmination of all these experiences written down so I can share them with a broader audience than I could ever hope to personally work with. I hope you find it phenomenally valuable in your performance firefighting quest!