That moment when the token drops

How much I love that moment when the token drops — you know, like the quarter in old public payphones. And yes — for the younger generation, that simply means “the message landed.” I’m sure there’s a more sophisticated term for it today 😁 In any case, I’m one of those who believe, live, and breathe the idea that regulation is intuitive. Of course rules must be written, but conceptually they never come out of nowhere. They arise because something happened — written with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears to make the importance clear. Interestingly, in the field of Data Integrity, it’s much more of a methodological mindset and a way of working. Yes, today the definitions appear in formal regulations, but the origin goes back to codes written long before we defined the concept of integrity. Even though integrity has existed since the dawn of humanity. Data management too — but that’s a different story. And after this long introduction — what does this have to do with tokens? Implementing data-reliability requirements and validation of information systems varies slightly from one organization to another. I love when the implementation happens “in motion,” focusing on what really matters right now for the client, while they begin to adopt the idea. So when the moment is right, I define the regulatory requirement — for example: maintaining an annual report listing all authorized users of the system. And the response is: “Oh, of course we need that,” and then we think together about how to apply it — and it all falls perfectly into place, just like Tetris. “Doesn’t it sound simple?” I ask. And the answer: “Yes, of course, it really makes sense. Naturally we need an organized list of authorized users, especially right before license renewal. We were just about to do that.” And I say, “So how great that it’ll also be organized and show what you’ve done, right?” Everyone connects to that last part — because nothing is more frustrating than doing a lot of work and no one sees it. As they always said: what you didn’t write down in your notebook is as if you never did. That’s exactly when the token drops. And in the picture — a token several decades old, still sitting in my sewing basket, traveling with me from place to place, even though I sew far less today.