The author discusses the optimization of GraphQL request waterfalls and how to make efficient use of this technology. The main goal is to minimize the number of asynchronous calls made to the backend, which can significantly improve performance. The author uses a fictional example of an events app to demonstrate their approach, starting with a naive implementation that makes many concurrent requests and gradually improving it through batching up nodes and edges, and finally looking ahead to optimize the request chain by requesting data early based on the query AST. The author highlights the importance of understanding the GraphQL execution model and how to visualize critical chains of requests to identify performance wins.