Ted Codd was a quiet mathematician at IBM. In 1970, he published a paper called A Relational Model of Data. It became one of the most important ideas in the history of computing. But IBM didn’t want it. They had legacy products to protect, so they stalled the invention that would define the next fifty years. Here’s what happened next. 1. Codd left IBM and published his “12 rules” They defined what a true relational database should look like. Every modern system still follows his logic. But no co