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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • If it was only one shitty ancient system it would be one thing. For the company I work for it’s about 10 big interconnected mainframe systems with hundreds of non-mainframe systems cobbled together around them. They’ve been in place since the 80s, but you can trace their business logic back to the 50s and 60s. They start at cataloging all our parts and get into purchasing components from suppliers, describing the products we assemble, managing the supply chains for our factories, order management from our customers, etc.

    Replacing it all will be massive chore, but it’s becoming more and more clear that we need to. At the end of the day, capturing and understanding data in them takes so much skill that we have entire departments dedicated to being an interface between the actual users and the mainframe. The business rules might have worked before the products we build contained electronic controls, but everything is starting to implode now that “parts” also includes software. This has resulted in manual workaround on top of manual workaround.



  • A very related question to ask is: did your parents, or extended family, ever help you financially?

    Here’s my answer.

    Have I ever received help from my parents and/or extended family? Yes. I was able to live rent free after high school while I found my way. When I eventually started college I was able to live at home and commute. My family started a college fund for me when I was little, so I was able to cover about 15% of my in-state tuition. We also got a cash loan from my Grandma to put toward a down payment that we paid back over the course of a few years. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to buy our house.

    Am I getting help from my parents or extended family now? No, I haven’t for years. Money and support have started flowing the other direction. I’ve given my mom a (used) car and also let her live with us for a year and a half while she switched careers.