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The Postgres docs are massive, so “Read The Manual” is tough advice when getting started with it.

Except…Postgres. It’s not because the official docs aren’t stellar (they are!)–they’re just massive. For the current version (17 at the time of writing), if printed as a standard PDF on US letter-sized paper, it’s 3,200 pages long. It’s not something any junior engineer can just sit down and read start to finish.

This article breaks down a bunch of features and advice for getting into and using Postgres. It ranges from things like unintuitive NULL behavior, the Don’t Do This Postgres wiki, psql enhancements, and advice on indexes.