Simon Cozens has a history lesson for you and (unconnected) the best reason to develop a database I've ever seen.

It all starts, like most things do, with beer.

The big problem with beer is that the nicer the beer, the more of it you consume, and, for some reason, the less likely you are to remember how good it was in the morning, and so you never know whether or not you want to buy that particular beer again. So you have to buy it anyway to try to work out whether or not you liked it. This is enjoyable, but not particularly economical. I found myself needing some kind of database to keep track of my tastings.