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Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

fastcompany.com

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Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#11

Post by coffeefirst »

dpc_01234 wrote: post #7
ronbenton wrote: post #2

The problem isn't that they don't know COBOL. The problem is they're not asking questions about things they don't understand. That's very dangerous in legacy code environments.

[flagged]

> These government systems by necessity are not very complex, because the hardware at the time did not have capacity for anything too complex

I'm guessing you haven't met anyone who's actually worked on any of these system.

Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#12

Post by ipaddr »

dpc_01234 wrote: post #7
ronbenton wrote: post #2

The problem isn't that they don't know COBOL. The problem is they're not asking questions about things they don't understand. That's very dangerous in legacy code environments.

[flagged]

Didn't twitter already collapse now valued at single digit billions. The loss of traffic helped with the reduced headcount efforts. You don't need 80% of employees with 80% less dollars earned.

Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#13

Post by ronbenton »

fzeroracer wrote: post #10
dpc_01234 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> These government systems by necessity are not very complex, because the hardware at the time did not have capacity for anything too complex. This is possibly one of the most absurd takes I've read on HN in a while. I'm imagining someone trying to learn how a PC game programmed in Assembly works going 'how hard could it be, PCs in the 90s weren't that complex'

I'm always interested in hearing people out, but these legacy COBOL codebases are massive, complex behemoths. Certainly eyebrow-raising to hear someone say they are not complex.

Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#18

Post by elonistheworst »

Gee101 wrote: post #17

Musk runs companies where software mistakes can kill people. I would give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to software.

Musk runs a company that makes a product called "Full Self Driving" that cannot safely or legally be used for full self driving, and has therefore injured hundreds and killed north of 50 people. Under no circumstances should be be given the benefit of the doubt with anyone's safety, finances, or wellbeing.

Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#19

Post by minimaxir »

minimaxir wrote: post #4

I tested it and it turns out LLMs can follow commands such as "Port the following Python code to COBOL", although it's certainly harder to validate the output is correct.

(to be clear this is most definitely not an endorsement of this approach, but you know DOGE is going to try it anyways)

Re: Elon Musk's DOGE team may need a crash course in COBOL

#20

Post by kccoder »

Gee101 wrote: post #17

Musk runs companies where software mistakes can kill people. I would give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to software.

Musk long ago lost the right to be given the benefit of the doubt on anything. The man lies constantly, has the temperament and self-control of small child, an ego the size of Jupiter, is reportedly a ketamine addict, and has verifiably silly things about software design and development. He's completely self-serving. Everything he says is for his own benefit. If you view his statements through that lens you'll quickly have a better understanding of what is happening. I have a similar lens for Trump: The opposite of what he says is closer to the truth. It's incredibly reliable.
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