In 2022, I started exploring database internals out of pure curiosity, and now ~70% of my posts revolve around them :) This is how I dig deeper and try to make sense of them…
I am usually found skimming either the source code or the official docs of different databases, and the moment I stumble upon something that seems interesting (to me), I
- understand it theoretically (if going through docs)
- find relevant pieces in source code (keyword lookups)
- use Claude to tweak the code and add a small change
- build, run, and observe
- prompt it to do something more complex and observe
- understand the flow from the changes thus made
- take quick notes of its working
- use my warmed-up Claude session to fact-check it
Then, of course, the distilled easy-to-understand version of the concept and internals goes on my socials, blog, and YouTube. What goes where depends on how deep and detailed the topic is.