> I don't think those are comparable to complexities in IT that exist today.
I think the constraints and lack of “here you go” resources many starting programmers dealt with, even for toy applications, out of necessity in the 70s and 80s are better preparation for the attitude necessary for dealing with the complexities in IT today than the learning conditions today.
Which isn't to idealize it, it was also a hard onramp that drove lots of people off that would have done well at many real world problems where they weren't soloing without support, and night with experience have still developed to great solo practitioners, too. But the people I've encountered that came through that 70s/80s start tend to be, IME, on average more willing to slog through and learn hard stuff in new areas than people who came up through, later, easier onramps.
Though that may also be in significant part survivorship bias, as the 70s/80s crew will have had to have stuck around the field longer, usually, and it may be people with that flexibility are more likely to stay in technology past the half-life of whatever was current when they got in.
I think the constraints and lack of “here you go” resources many starting programmers dealt with, even for toy applications, out of necessity in the 70s and 80s are better preparation for the attitude necessary for dealing with the complexities in IT today than the learning conditions today.
Which isn't to idealize it, it was also a hard onramp that drove lots of people off that would have done well at many real world problems where they weren't soloing without support, and night with experience have still developed to great solo practitioners, too. But the people I've encountered that came through that 70s/80s start tend to be, IME, on average more willing to slog through and learn hard stuff in new areas than people who came up through, later, easier onramps.
Though that may also be in significant part survivorship bias, as the 70s/80s crew will have had to have stuck around the field longer, usually, and it may be people with that flexibility are more likely to stay in technology past the half-life of whatever was current when they got in.