About 40 years ago, I was finishing a night school course in computer programming, for scientific and business applications. Our primary tool was the IBM 1401 as I recall. On the last day of the course, IBM announced the System 360, which was of course critical to the Apollo moon missions among others. The capability of the new hardware and apps were so much beyond what we had been doing, that our whole class had a feeling that we had wasted our time. Of course it was all valuable background, but it was interesting to have that as an initiation / moment of awakening.
On retrospection, there have been other changes in the IT industry, but that was the first big one for me and my classmates in Riverside, Ontario. It was my first lesson on change as a way of life. I am sure there are not many still working who can recall that day, certainly even fewer who were at that very moment embarking on technical careers.
David Grant, Ontario
