Chapter 6
Keeping track of people
Gary doesn’t plan to build a system.
He just wants to remember his regulars.
Who comes in often.
Who prefers certain genres.
Who always asks him to call when something special arrives.
A simple list feels enough
Gary creates a new sheet.
One row per person.
He adds a few columns:
- Name
- Phone number
- Notes
Nothing fancy.
Just enough to be useful.
People feel different from records
Gary notices something immediately.
Records are things he sells.
Artists are things records point to.
But people?
People come back.
They change.
They remember things.
They expect to be remembered.
This list doesn’t feel like support data.
It feels important.
The structure still feels familiar
Gary doesn’t hesitate the way he used to.
He knows how tables behave now.
He knows what it means to add a row.
He knows what it means to change a value.
That familiarity carries over.
This is just another list.
Or so it seems.
Something quietly shifts
As the list grows, Gary notices something subtle.
This table isn’t describing transactions.
It isn’t describing inventory.
It’s describing people.
Each row represents someone
who might call, visit, or wait.
The system isn’t just helping Gary organize work.
It’s starting to remember on his behalf.
Still simple — for now
Gary doesn’t question the structure yet.
He doesn’t wonder what belongs where.
He doesn’t worry about edge cases.
Everything fits.
And that’s enough.
For now.
Continue reading
In the next chapter, a quiet question appears.
Not about structure —
but about ownership.
When information is about a person,
what actually belongs to them?