Opportunity

[Steve Litt]

On Tue, 2022-08-23 at 19:29 -0700, techlists at phpcoderusa.com wrote:

> I've made friends with a guy who works at Walmart who tells me he used 
> to be a COBOL programmer and his job was sent to India.
> 
> About 5 years ago I met a guy at a local car show.  He was showing his 
> 1960's Vette.  He told me he was a COBOL programmer.

It's offtopic, but this story fits in with what you just said.

A long, long time ago, when I was a fairly new programmer working second shift, I
took lunch at All American Burgers on 10th and Wilshire in Santa Monica. I had with
me a book on Pascal programming.

A homeless guy was wandering around the restaurant, talking loudly with somebody I
couldn't see, making wild gestures. I steered clear and went to the counter to order
my hamburger. The homeless guy drifted toward me, I assumed to panhandle me. But
when he got four feet from me, he looked at my book and said "Th That's P Pascal,
it's a p programming language." (Gesture, gesture)

He continued, "I used to be a p programmer, b but I don't l like it any more."

Then he went back to animatedly talking with his buddy I couldn't see.

For a long time I wondered if I'd end up like him, especially after I read Edward
Yourdon's book "Death March". That was 38 years ago, and I still talk to myself only
when others can't hear me, so I guess I didn't meet the same fate as that guy.