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> My favorite example of the latter is how the arrival of IBM computing in the 60s and 70s totally changed the definition of accounting, inventory control, and

> My favorite example of the latter is how the arrival of IBM computing in the 60s and 70s totally changed the definition of accounting, inventory control, and business operations. Every process that was "computerized" ultimately looked nothing at all like what was going on under those green eyeshades in accounting. How did you arrive at that conclusion? Most of those applications were written by the businesses themselves. IBM provided you a programming environment not a set of predefined business software. Which is why COBOL jobs still exist. What changed with the mainframe was that instead of having a bunch of disparate and disconnected processes you now had a centralized set of dependent processes and a database that provided a single source of truth. Businesses were going to want this capability regardless of how limited humans with green eyeshades were previously. > Much of the early internet (and still most bank and insurance) look like HTML front ends to mainframe 3270 screens. Well, precisely, those are custom applications. If they weren't we wouldn't have this issue. You talk about automation but you seem to have not noticed that mainframes have CICS, why it exists, and why businesses still use it. The "old school" ways are actually still exceptionally powerful.

kmoser 2y ago
Also: > As it turns out the entire flow at the post office (or DMV or tax office) is about exception handling. No amount of software is going to get you out of there because it is piecing together a bunch of inputs and outputs that are outside the bounds of a system. Not sure how the author arrived at this conclusion, either. Both entities (USPS and DMV) have elaborate rules for how business gets done. The USPS in particular has rules that cover shipping everything imaginable, often via different methods. The outputs are quite simple: USPS ships your package; DMV provides your license or vehicle registration.

kmoser 2y ago

Also: > As it turns out the entire flow at the post office (or DMV or tax office) is about exception handling. No amount of software is going to get you out of there because it is piecing together a bunch of inputs and outputs that are outside the bounds of a system. Not sure how the author arrived at this conclusion, either. Both entities (USPS and DMV) have elaborate rules for how business gets done. The USPS in particular has rules that cover shipping everything imaginable, often via different methods. The outputs are quite simple: USPS ships your package; DMV provides your license or vehicle registration.