Optimizing Rails for Memory Usage Part 3: Pluck and Database Laziness This is part three in a four-part series on optimizing a potentially memory-heavy Rails action without resorting to pagination. The posts in the series are: Part 1: Before You Optimize Part 2: Tuning the GC Part 3: Pluck and Database Laziness Part 4: Lazy JSON Generation and Final Thoughts Pluck the Chicken If changing Ruby’s GC