Databases and cupboards

It was a quite calm evening while my baby was asking Alexa to play her favorite songs. Poor fed-up Alexa was figuring out the songs instructed by this little girl and playing them without questions.

Off the topic, sometimes I feel bad for Alexa. After me, it's she who gets harassed the most. But she manages to pay attention to my kiddo when she requests songs and attempts her best to get them right. Kudos to her.

So going back to the story, my kiddo just turned around and asked me how Alexa played the music that she asked for? Her question might be basically about databases. I asked her a series of questions to confirm if that was what she wanted to understand. And here is my explanation:

Cupboard v/s Database

She has a cupboard with organized space for all kinds of clothes she has. A rack with t-shirts and matching bottoms, a whole compartment for her lovely dresses, some space for her school clothes, etc. It is so organized that she can pick up what she wants by herself.

"You see how you have a cupboard, Alexa also has one where she has all the songs kept. Whenever you ask for a song, she goes to her cupboard, finds it, and gets back to you." 

It was a little hard for her to picture songs as her clothes. Obviously, it is stupid of me. Clothes can be touched and seen but music is just for the ears. So I thought for a while. Then I said, 

"Your cupboard has clothes that can be touched and Alexa has music in her cupboard which can be heard. She has it well organized and that is why she can play it so quickly." 

At this point, I also understood that I should not stop and simplify the answer to her but leave a bit of technical details so that she can associate things with a very basic understanding. So I continued, we call Alexa's cupboard a database. 

I think it made sense to her and she was happy she learned something new.