Thinking differently about . . . data

One of the first tools I used in my programming career was something that we would barely recognise as a tool today: it wasn’t a testing tool, or a deployment tool, or even a compiler. It was a physical rubber stamp used to create a variant of something called a Bachman diagram: a representation of an ICL IDMSX database structure. You used the stamp to create boxes that represented record types, and then filled in name and other characteristics in ink.

I share this story not just out of nostalgia (although I am sure that this will bring back memories for many people), but to illustrate just how differently we must think about data today than thirty years ago - and to remind us that, for many of us in senior technology leadership positions, we acquired skills, beliefs and habits in a world very different to that of today.