CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@paulywill well and to prioritize training; COBOL was absolutely downplayed in universities, to disastrous effect in the long run.

I published this for Wired today and I'm really happy with it. You might think that I have a categorical dislike of COBOL, but actually I don't. I think instead that it's really important to think carefully about the computing systems you build, because changing them can be *really* painful. I wrote this thinking in no small part about vibe-coding and how we'll be stuck with systems that nobody really understands, and if they get large enough they will be incredibly difficult to unravel.

COBOL Is the Asbestos of Programming Languages

The most widely adopted computer language in history, COBOL is now causing a host of problems. It's also dangerously difficult to remove.

WIRED (www.wired.com)

I hate that the movie that best predicted what life would like in the 2020s was Children of Men. No massively exciting technological advantages, just stagnation and a very real sense that things will keep getting worse.