Michael Goldberg
Reading time: 4 minutes
PostgreSQL is the World’s most advanced Open Source Relational Database. The interview series “PostgreSQL Person of the Week” presents the people who make the project what it is today. Read all interviews here.
Please tell us about yourself, and where you are from.
I’m from a small town located in the Ural mountains. In 1991 our family moved to Israel. I live in Tel Aviv since then.
Michael Goldberg
How do you spend your free time? What are your hobbies?
Sailing. Once I received the skipper certificate I thought that I was going to spend all my free time at sea… Now I just need to find some free time.
Two years ago I rejoined the sailing team. Together we won the Israel Yacht Championship back in 2009. We are trying to meet and not forget the skills from time to time.
Any Social Media channels of yours we should be aware of?
Last book you read? Or a book you want to recommend to readers?
Last book I read was “What Great Paintings Say. Faces of Power” by Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen.
The next book I’m going to read is “Unknown Sun” by Ivan Panchenko, a well known PostgreSQL person. Hopefully I translated the book title correctly.
Some of my favorites and which I’d like to recommend authors are Stephen Fry, Alan Sillitoe, and Tom Sharpe.
Any favorite movie, or show?
There are some…
I think the winner is “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Anytime we had a chance to see the show while visiting London - we did it.
Other favorite mass production creations by Quentin Tarantino, Joel and Ethan Coen, Guy Ritchie.
From the documentary domain - “The Weight of Chains” and its sequel “The Weight of Chains 2” by Boris Malagurski.
What does your ideal weekend look like?
See, sun (could be cloudy), wind, full sail.
“The wind is free” (Frank A. Wightman)
What’s still on your bucket list?
Travel to the Far East. We had to cancel our trip to Japan last year due to known circumstances.
What is the best advice you ever got?
Never show to anybody that you’re running out of resources (any of them).
When did you start using PostgreSQL, and why?
I started to work with PostgreSQL in 2016 in one of the Israeli startups.
The team recently migrated from MySQL to PostgreSQL.
I think it was one of the most intelligent decisions the company made back then.
Do you remember which version of PostgreSQL you started with?
Of course, 9.6. Still in production. Need to upgrade soon.
Have you studied at a university? If yes, was it related to computers? Did your study help you with your current job?
The first related to computer study was in 1990 once I was learning FORTRAN in the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering. After relocating to Israel I studied Software Engineering and earned a degree in Information Systems.
Definitely the gained knowledge assists me in my professional life.
On which PostgreSQL-related projects are you currently working?
I’m working on Awide - a new industry vision of PostgreSQL management and monitoring.
The target is to simplify Postgres tasks and problem-solving challenges.
The platform aggregates all crucial tasks, activities, and features to maximize PostgreSQL performance in one place. Altogether, it creates a seamless, integrated, and smooth user experience.
Any contributions to PostgreSQL which do not involve writing code?
I’m a co-founder of PostgreSQL Israeli Community and co-organizer of pgDay Israel conferences since 2017.
I maintain the PostgreSQL Israel and pgDay Israel websites, and I am a moderator of the pgsql-iw-general mailing list.
I’m a PostgreSQL translator and the press releases translation team member; I started with a PostgreSQL translation into Hebrew.
Some time before COVID-19 I joined the SWAG network organized by Mark Wong.
Since last year I’ve been a team member of the PostgreSQL Code of Conduct Committee.
What is your favorite PostgreSQL extension?
pg_stat_statementsWe use it a lot to identify the SQL statements consuming the server resources. e.g. temporary space.
What is the feature you like most in the latest PostgreSQL version?
New configuration parameter idle_session_timeout.
Really hope it will help our customers to manage useless connections (if they don’t do so on an application level or in a connection pool software).
Which skills are a must have for a PostgreSQL user?
Patience and reading comprehension.
See the whole picture - understand the entire ecosystem/processes/functions and their effect on the instance performance and productivity.
Understand and use the monitoring systems.
Which PostgreSQL conferences do you visit? Do you submit talks?
I’m organizing pgDay Israel for the fifth year already.
Unfortunately I could not have a chance to visit other major PostgreSQL events - I was very busy with working activities. Last year it almost happened, but COVID-19 changed everybody’s plans.
Do you think PostgreSQL has a high entry barrier?
No, the documentation is great and well managed. There are a lot of online resources.
All these and the person’s willingness to learn can flatten the learning curve.
Would you recommend PostgreSQL for business, or for side projects?
For sure. PostgreSQL is a great choice for many project’s types.
Are you reading the -hackers mailinglist? Any other list?
Yes; here are some other mailinglists I follow:
-advocacy, -announce, -translators, others.