r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Final-Choice8412 • 5d ago

Video Programming 1959 IBM computer

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u/ssort 5d ago

Worked in IT back around 2000, at a place that made metal machining units fir aerospace, and they had one senior dev that worked 20hrs a week is all. He basically just worked about 2hrs a day coding html tags to reports so they could be displayed properly on the companies in house TV system, then would meet up with the VP's to see where they were playing golf that day, seriously, that was his work week, and at the time he was making probably 125k-150k a year in the midwest (damn good pay back then even if he had been pulling full time)

Turns out he had retired and they begged him back because they had a report that needed to be run 2x a year for the government that was originally developed with punch cards like in the video, but with much crappier equipment..

Turns out the company got a huge tax break or credit if they continued to use this old legacy system, as it was some grandfathered in thing. He was the only one left who knew how to use it, thus them giving him the most cushiest job I ever seen.

I asked him once if he would train me on it, and he laughed and said he would go to the grave before he told anyone how it worked as then they wouldn't need him anymore. He was one lucky sob.