The debate in the database world most often focuses on performance, scale, and the particulars of competitive data models. We traffic in benchmarks and experience reports from flagship deployments, and hope to sell one solution over another on the basis of quantitative measurements. Taking a cue from Winston Churchill and his thoughts on the reconstruction of the London skyline after World War II, we'll explore a rich, non-linear way of thinking about technology selection in this exciting space. By examining the way varied forms in music, literature, and building architecture are used by creative professionals, we'll see that quantitative analysis should be the last kind of comparison we make, and never the first. You'll come away from this talk with powerful new intellectual tools to help you navigate the perennial debates that technology leaders engage over and over—and you may never look at your database the same way again.