[nkurz]

Got it, thanks! For me the better question is often simply "Why is it X?" Knowing why the speed is X is often of much greater utility than simply knowing that X is the speed. I like to focus on determining the current single limiting factor before considering the harder question of what would be necessary to achieve 10x.

[brendangregg]

If you know the limiter, you know why it isn't 10x. It's CPU bound. It's disk bound and we're on a single disk. etc.

How do we actually make it 10x? is a follow on question, but as you say, not one that may be easy to answer!