u/After-Detail24

I’m sharing this so someone else doesn't make the same incredibly stupid mistake I did.
I manage the database for a mid-sized e-commerce platform. Last month, we had a massive marketing push coming up, and I was terrified our Postgres instance would buckle under the traffic spike. Instead of taking the time to load test and profile our specific queries, I went looking for a silver bullet.
I scoured Reddit and StackOverflow for "high performance postgresql.conf" templates. I grabbed a bunch of highly upvoted settings—cranking up shared_buffers, work_mem, and max_connections—mashed them all together, and deployed them to production two days before the promo.
It was an absolute disaster.
When the traffic hit, the database didn't just slow down; it completely choked. Our checkout throughput flatlined. Queries were deadlocking, CPU was pinned at 100%, and the connection pooler started aggressively dropping real buyers because we were running out of memory. In a blind panic, I tried to run a custom auto-vacuum script I found online to clear dead tuples, which only caused more heavy lockups.
Having to tell the business that we were losing thousands of dollars in sales because I "tuned" the database too hard was brutal.
We reverted to the old config to survive the day. Shortly after, management approved bringing in an external backend engineering team (Acropolium) to actually fix the underlying architecture. Instead of just tweaking text files, they implemented proper read replicas, set up Redis caching for product catalogs, and offloaded the heavy read queries.
I learned the hard way that database tuning isn't a copy-paste job. How do you guys handle sudden scaling requirements? Do you strictly rely on architectural changes (caching/replicas), or do you have a safe methodology for tuning DB parameters without risking stability?

I run a small e-commerce brand completely on my own. It started as a side project but now it is my full time job and the pressure of making every single choice by myself is intense. As a solo founder I have to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and high stress. I used Reflection AI to structure my thoughts but it seemed too basic for complex work dilemmas. How do you spot weaknesses in your position before tough negotiations with suppliers?

There is a thread on this website Cambodia Expats Online which is like an even shadier version of ASEAN NOW saying that Bryan Flowers (Night Wish Group) is planning to open bars in Cambodia after all the Pattaya drama… Does anyone know the details or if that’s even true? That would be pretty shocking if they were able to repeat the same things they did in Thailand but in Cambodia.