MySQL (and PostgreSQL, for that matter) isn't bad at handling queries, when the tables are tuned for those queries. People don't do this well (if at all), and f

MySQL (and PostgreSQL, for that matter) isn't bad at handling queries, when the tables are tuned for those queries. People don't do this well (if at all), and few databases are capable of automatically tuning tables (creating indices), since they require resources, and can have tradeoffs between read and write performance. Properly tuned, a database is able to handle millions of requests per second.