11–20 of 265 posts
I really liked this story, and it resonated with me. My programming career began in much the same way, at about the same time. The only non-computer job I've ever had was my first, a six-week stint at a Burger King, and I was desperate to never do that again. I undersold my skills often, and got in over my head just as often. It was a great, if sometimes painful, learning experience.
I had to work summer jobs though, starting at 15: road crew, pounding spikes on the railway, lumberjack. I'm not sure I would have been better off for not having those jobs though. I learned a lot about what the average person does to get by and about how much alcohol gives me minor alcohol poisoning.
1. Would this still be possible today? It's a certain timeframe (for software) where this was possible. Today it's things like SAP, integrated systems and DMCA on top of it (or Excel).
2. I did the menial route and am still happy for it. Flipping burgers, cleaning dishes, repairing truck tires and cleaning office buildings. It's a different sort of grit and stamina than the one that gets you far in your office career, but I still look back fondly on the lessons about hard work. It was also an introduction into diversity. I've met people on those jobs the 16-year old me never met before, and since. For me the lesson is: whatever my kids will do in jobs on the side, it pleases somebody enough to give them money and them enough to do the job it's a worthwhile lesson.
Loved this one. When I was mid-20’s I found myself in a “how much” situation as well. Thankfully I had the gumption to “go for it.” I had found a solution to save the business 100k+ when another contractor charged 10k+ and failed to complete a job because the business couldn’t pay them any more. The thing is, once I started digging into it, the other contractor had done 95% of the work; It just needed a nudge to get…
Loved this one. When I was mid-20’s I found myself in a “how much” situation as well. Thankfully I had the gumption to “go for it.” I had found a solution to save the business 100k+ when another contractor charged 10k+ and failed to complete a job because the business couldn’t pay them any more. The thing is, once I started digging into it, the other contractor had done 95% of the work; It just needed a nudge to get…
Loved this one. When I was mid-20’s I found myself in a “how much” situation as well. Thankfully I had the gumption to “go for it.” I had found a solution to save the business 100k+ when another contractor charged 10k+ and failed to complete a job because the business couldn’t pay them any more. The thing is, once I started digging into it, the other contractor had done 95% of the work; It just needed a nudge to get…
Great story. Two things: 1. Would this still be possible today? It's a certain timeframe (for software) where this was possible. Today it's things like SAP, integrated systems and DMCA on top of it (or Excel). 2. I did the menial route and am still happy for it. Flipping burgers, cleaning dishes, repairing truck tires and cleaning office buildings. It's a different sort of grit and stamina than the one that gets you…
There's still a lot of utterly awful, sloppy business software around, especially for SMBs.
I really liked this story. Im much too young to have been around for it, but I feel like this era of computing must have been kind of magical where there was a lot of access and no walled garden nearly to the scale of a google or apple where the obfuscation just requires a flipped bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELF_II
The RCA 1802 processor even had "SEX" and "GET HIGH" instructions!