Optimization of slow SQL queries is one of the most hardest kung fu for a database administrator to obtain. However, there is a couple of simple and useful approaches one could take: how to localize a slow query, how to find where it's performance bottleneck and how to optimize it. During this part talk, part demonstration, we'll grab real-world (although anonymized) queries, use them to create a workload on the database server and optimize them right in front of your eyes, describing things you should pay attention to as we proceed.