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If you bring in most people with previous programming or systems exposure, they hear "COBOL", and make jokes about "COOL COBOL" (COBOL Object Orientated Languag

If you bring in most people with previous programming or systems exposure, they hear "COBOL", and make jokes about "COOL COBOL" (COBOL Object Orientated Language). This somewhat includes myself. If you bring in someone who is smart, pragmatic, and interested in a nice indoor job with good pay, they're more interested in the specialized job training and position that comes with it. Someone I knew made the tongue in cheek retirement joke that "where else could I learn COBOL and mainframe in university, and never learn anything else until I retired?"

forinti 6y ago
These two extremes I can't understand: people who never want to learn anything and people who seem to only want to use each framework once.
- duncan_bayne 6y ago
  I think both are an example of an aversion to deep learning.
  - technofiend 6y ago
    My personal theory is it's some mix of imposter syndrome and fear of missing out. If you don't keep up with the latest tech then sooner or later you'll be found out and ejected from the pack, never to draw another sv paycheck again.
- flyinghamster 6y ago
  The problem is finding the middle ground. There's only so much I can learn, and only so much time to learn it. I don't want to spend my time spinning my wheels learning $NEXT_BIG_THING only for it to be superseded by $NEXT_BIG_THING+1 by the time I master it.
rbanffy 6y ago
> and make jokes about "COOL COBOL" (COBOL Object Orientated Language) I always assumed it'd be `POST-INCREMENT COBOL BY 1`
- GoblinSlayer 6y ago
  ADD 1 TO COBOL
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    But does that expression evaluate to the incremented value?
bitwize 6y ago
COOL (for C Object Oriented Language) was the internal Microsoft name for what would become C#. The jokes I heard were about ADD 1 TO COBOL GIVING COBOL, following the convention established by C++. Recent versions of the COBOL standard, like Fortran and Ada, include object-oriented extensions.

forinti 6y ago

These two extremes I can't understand: people who never want to learn anything and people who seem to only want to use each framework once.

duncan_bayne 6y ago
I think both are an example of an aversion to deep learning.
- technofiend 6y ago
  My personal theory is it's some mix of imposter syndrome and fear of missing out. If you don't keep up with the latest tech then sooner or later you'll be found out and ejected from the pack, never to draw another sv paycheck again.
flyinghamster 6y ago
The problem is finding the middle ground. There's only so much I can learn, and only so much time to learn it. I don't want to spend my time spinning my wheels learning $NEXT_BIG_THING only for it to be superseded by $NEXT_BIG_THING+1 by the time I master it.

rbanffy 6y ago

> and make jokes about "COOL COBOL" (COBOL Object Orientated Language) I always assumed it'd be `POST-INCREMENT COBOL BY 1`

GoblinSlayer 6y ago
ADD 1 TO COBOL
- rbanffy 6y ago
  But does that expression evaluate to the incremented value?

bitwize 6y ago

COOL (for C Object Oriented Language) was the internal Microsoft name for what would become C#. The jokes I heard were about ADD 1 TO COBOL GIVING COBOL, following the convention established by C++. Recent versions of the COBOL standard, like Fortran and Ada, include object-oriented extensions.