Bill the LizardAug 13, 2025
Narrator voice: It was, in fact, 10,000 lines of bug-filled crap.
Show threadEv DelenAug 13, 2025

@lizardbill

I'm reminded of how IBM used to try to quantify coding for the purposes of promotion and bonuses:

It started with KLOC, which incentivized developers to write long, unwieldy code to juice up their LOC count.

So then it became Code Density, which incentivized developers to write a single line of inscrutably dense but functional code.

Finally they just gave up!

Yeah, so line count is not a measure of quality by any means whatsoever!

cc @pluralistic

Show threadCory DoctorowAug 13, 2025

@evdelen @lizardbill

Bill Gates called IBM's method of paying programmers by the line of code, "The race to build the world's heaviest airplane."

Show threadafxAug 13, 2025
@pluralistic @evdelen @lizardbill
Where does that come from? Not during my time at the IBM lab...
Show threadCory DoctorowAug 13, 2025

@afx @evdelen @lizardbill

I believe the quote is from the mid-1980s.

Show threadAshwin Dixit

@pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill

Other anecdotes:

1) IBM managers realized that programmers were just sitting there typing on keyboards, and getting paid a lot more than typists, for ( what they thought ) was a similar, slightly more technical job. So IBM starts firing programmers and replacing them with typists, with some training thrown in.

2) Airconditioning failed at an IBM office and programmers had to seek management approval to take off the ties ( they all wore business suits ).

Aug 13, 2025 at 10:05pmWeb
Show threadClayfootAug 13, 2025
@purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill My mother was one of those punch card programmers. She moved to Florida, tried to get a job, and was told, "We don't hire women as programmers." So, she took one of those keypunch operator jobs, instead.
Show threadAshwin DixitAug 13, 2025

@clayfoot @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill

Ironic, since the first computer programmer was a woman ( Ada Lovelace ).

Show threadWulfy—Speaker to the machinesAug 14, 2025

@purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill

Huge culture change at #IBM was when they started wearing Polo shorts...

... Everyone was wearing Polo shirts so it became the new uniform
🙄

Show threadALAug 14, 2025

@n_dimension @purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill

I was there when the memo came out that the board of directors had a meeting and they were formally changing the corp dress code to be no dress code. It took a meeting and a vote to decide to not so something. I had stopped wearing a tie months early when I noticed that half the folks in a meeting had ties and half didnt.

Show threadJB (he/him)Aug 14, 2025
@n_dimension @purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill there must be an IBM dress code timeline on the Web somewhere? I was there in 1991 +/- a year when, at the RTP offices, we got a memo authorizing "casual Friday" which meant no tie required
Show threadDawn AhukannaAug 14, 2025
@jbm3 @n_dimension @purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill
Show threadTony FiskAug 14, 2025
@n_dimension @purrperl @pluralistic @afx @evdelen @lizardbill