I think the point there is that if you're thinking of a database as a collection of fields and tables, then there's a chance you might be failing to understand

I think the point there is that if you're thinking of a database as a collection of fields and tables, then there's a chance you might be failing to understand why we use relational databases in the first place, rather than just... tables of data which are indexed as fields. Anyway, in my experience, when someone is insisting on some specific terminology, they tend to have a good reason to do so (at least to the end of highlighting the specific confusions that lead to avoiding yours), and the mental hoops you have to jump through to figure out why their terminology is better are the kinds of things one needs to do to learn. > I'm not sure I would enjoy asking him for advice. I'm not sure you should be optimizing for your own enjoyment when it comes to asking people for advice.