This document discusses using ORM (Object Relational Mapping) properly in Rails applications to improve performance. It highlights that performance issues may be due to improper ORM usage rather than the language or framework. Active Record is introduced as Rails' ORM implementation based on the pattern defined by Martin Fowler. Techniques shown to improve performance with ORM include includes, joins, scopes, alternative mappings, New Relic Bullet, and DB query matchers. The document emphasizes optimizing ORM usage before considering rewriting parts of the application or using another language.