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Fortunately, I learned in my Masters Program that coding was a dead end. The real value added (read Big Paycheck) was in Software Engineering System Design and program management.

Although I was an undergraduate Economics major at UNC in the mid-70's, I had a bunch of math/computer science friends. They introduced me to Dr. Fredrick P Brooks. He was the Program Manager for the development of OS/360, the operating system for the IBM 360 mainframe. From his experiences he wrote, The Mythical Man-Month. In the process he essentially invented Software Engineering. He is also known for Brooks' Law: "Adding more manpower to a late software project only makes it later."

Over the years, I have given/loaned/lost more copies of The Mythical Man-Month than I care to think about. I always kept my original, well-worn, copy.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

Brooks’ Law: “Adding more manpower to a late software project only makes it later.”

So true.

Whenever I inherited a late project, I looked to see who I could remove. If I didn’t have the power to remove people, I did my best to sideline the bad ones so they didn’t get in the way of the good ones.

all good things must come to an end.
in 1968 i was a 360 operator. at that time, operators were gods.

I go into the service and get out in 1971. The company put in a 370.
I became a disk puller and a tape hanger only - all things I did as a 360 operator. I lasted 3 months.

Mythical man month. - Phrase I used when they wanted more manpower to get the job done quicker?
Two women can’t have a baby in 4.5 months.