I started Rails last summer and one of my development partners just started Rails about a month ago. Eager loading “clicked” for me a few weeks ago, and clicked for my partner yesterday.

The docs do not provide a complete picture as they only show *some* of the associations. It is up to the seasoned Rails developer to assume the rest of them. (FYI, I’m not criticizing the docs–I like them a lot.)

I filled in a few small missing pieces that for at least me and one other person, made a huge difference. I don’t know about you, but I spend a good deal of my debugging time trying to fix problems whose solutions are small, often, trivial changes.

When first picking up Ruby/Rails, it is often the small things that bog down learning: “What are those @-signs for? or those colons? When do I use them?” A short and simple explanation is all that is needed to get the new learner back on his/her feet. But without such an explanation s/he could be stuck for hours instead of minutes.

The length of the solution does not necessarily determine the significance of the problem.

This reads more like an “Aha! When I looked at this, I suddenly understood.” If someone is really mystified by eager loading, they are probably not going to suddenly understand anything from this article.

But do let me know what you don’t understand, I’d be glad to try and help.

-Alan