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In a field that has elevated boy geniuses and rockstar coders, obscure hacks and complex black-boxed algorithms, it's perhaps no wonder that a committee-designed language meant to be easier to learn and use-and which was created by a team that included multiple women in positions of authority-would be held in low esteem. But modern computing has started to become undone, and to undo other parts of our societies, through the field's high opinion of itself, and through the way that it concentrates power into the hands of programmers who mistake social, political, and economic problems for technical ones, often with disastrous results.

The article is mainly about COBOL and the false claim that it was to blame for failures in critical US public infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it surfaces so much more valuable insight into today's 'modern' tech culture. (via @adactio)