Look ere ye leap.
John Heywood Proverbs [1546], Pt. I, Ch. 2
To convert the art of SQL tuning to a science requires a common language, a common paradigm for describing and solving SQL tuning problems. This book teaches, for the first time in print in any detail, a method that has served me well and served others I have taught over many years. I call this method the query diagramming method.
Like any new tool, the query diagramming method requires some up-front investment from the would-be tool user. However, mastery of this tool offers tremendous rewards, so I urge you to be patient; the method seems hard only for a while. Soon, it will lead you to answers you would never have found without the tool, with moderate effort, and in the end it can become so second-nature that (like the best tools) you forget you are using it.