What a nice surprise. Two days ago I glanced a book about Clipper Summer in my bookshelf and thought that it would be nice to have an environment like that for the web. Glad that someone has built it!
By the way, I'm not nostalgic about the tech of those years, but I definitely think that we unlearned a few things along the way
> I know banking apps are the typical example, but I've always wondered why
My bank uses the app for 2FA, and that became a sort of a standard in Brazil, AFAIK. Mine at least gave me the option of using an RSA SecurID or sth alike when I asked, but I don't know how much it would cost me.
My stock broker on the other hand does 2FA exclusively on mobile (and only Android and iOS). The same for the health insurer.
My car insurer didn't force me to so far, which I find strange, given their interest in tracking my location and speed.
These were some of the major factors leading me to give up on using a feature phone when I tried, a few years ago. It was a good experience, especially at those times of pandemics and political instability, but the inconveniences were many.
I worked for a somewhat large bank that used to do this "system analysis" job at its beginnings. Don't recall how they called this process step, but the idea was the same. Besides the internal analysts, they used to hire consultancies full of experienced ladies and gentlemen to design larger projects before coding started.
Sometimes they were hired only to deliver specifications, sometimes the entire system. The software they delivered was quite stable, but that's beyond the point. There sure were software issues there, but I was impressed by how those problems were usually contained in their respective originating systems, rarely breaking other software. The entire process was clear enough and the interfaces between the fleet of windows/linux/mainframe programs were extremely well documented. Even the most disorganized and unprofessional third-party suppliers had an easier time writing software for us. It wasn't a joy, but it was rational, there was order. I'm not trying to romanticize the past, but, man, we sure un-learned a few things about how to build software systems
What a coincidence, I've just read this paper while I prepare my proposal for a PhD. I feel that the difficulties reported by the novice users were related to the peculiarities of the mainframe interfaces + the 3270 emulator. Not exactly to the fact that they were using a TUI.
Senior dev, 22 years of experience. Almost exactly two years unemployed right now. I've done some technical leadership before but I'm not looking into it anymore, not really my thing.
In general, I get very few replies, even fewer interviews and 100% eventually "freeze the position" or simply ghost me. I've heard that too many companies are currently spending their HR budgets in market research and have no intention of fulfilling most of the positions they advertise. Not sure if that's true, and maybe there are other reasons for that, market-related and/or related to my resume, but applying to jobs is feeling just a huge waste of my time currently and I'm tending to apply only when I see a great fit.
How I cope: I could save a fair amount of money during the startup frenzy in the course of the pandemics and am living off it right now. But it doesn't generate enough passive income, not even close, so I'll have to find a job eventually. I'm seriously considering another profession. Maybe trying to ingress in the education field with my masters. Despite tech job market being at the rock-bottom, the unemployment rates in Brazil are at a historic low.
Now, despite this gloomy report, if you ask me, I'm feeling optimistic, happy even. I'm really seizing the opportunity to study a lot and spending time with my family, so I feel all this is doing me well overall.
> Likewise many companies in my slice of the industry point to one of the big leaders RTO policies as the reason to do the same
This also explains other things, not only RTO. Like when the mass layoffs started about three years ago. Overstaffed big-tech fired a few thousand allegedly idle employees and (not surprisingly) saw no impacts on output. That was enough for many smaller companies, some of them understaffed, to go on and do the same, surely encouraged by their investors. I have friends in a half dozen companies complaining about permanent overtime and severe project delays after the layoffs. Yet, referred companies are either not hiring, or doing it in a very leisurely pace.
Funny thing is that americans do that all the time, even in international settings like a coworking space full of expats. Everybody introducing themselves with a "hi, I'm from this country", except americans telling their state or city. Are they expecting us to be familiar with their geography, or just unaware of alternative geographical frames of reference?
I'm in a similar situation of yours (I don't feel any kind of regret though, I just feel this is a phase and it will pass someday). Anyway, I still read (and indeed not much more than that) a lot about my passions, but taking notes and writing down ideas to maybe try in the uncertain future has helped me to feel engaged with my intellectual pursuits. Stay strong my friend.
Glad to hear you are well. Also because that gives me some more hope.
> which seems to have some weird comorbidities
I'm a bit shocked by your list of comorbidities. Not only yours, but also the one you linked to. MCAS is currently among my most pressing concerns, although it seems to be getting under control with H1 and H2 antihistamines + cromoglycate. An anti inflammatory diet also helps, even though I'm struggling to stay completely away from sugar. The psychiatric part calls my attention. I also present some traits of ADHD and ASD, although not enough to complete a diagnosis. Twenty years ago I joined mensa at the 99th percentile, but I do believe my IQ has decreased significantly since then. I can't even remember the last time I had, in my adulthood, my mind as functional as I used to have in my teenagehood, even before covid and the aggravation of the symptoms.
Out of your list, the only item I couldn't relate with were the medications working less than expected. In my case, I usually have stronger effects, both therapeutic and side ones. That happens with vaccines too. However, last weekend I took one for Influenza and the side effects were barely noticeable for the first time in my adult life -- I hope that's a result of the MCAS treatment.
I'm going through a similar investigation. EDS + ME/CFS are the main suspects. Could live with the symptoms for very long, but they got too severe after covid (otherwise I would probably still be living with them).
Good that you brought that up: that works pretty well to me in my mother tongue. I still learn and absorb beautiful and useful patterns reading good authors. But that doesn't seem to work in other languages as well. I somehow don't manage to appropriate the new patterns, or maybe I do, but very slowly.
Interestingly, when it comes to spoken English, I can learn by imitation way faster.
> Anecdotally, this phenomenon seems more common among English-as-a-second-language speakers
That part caught my attention. As an English-as-a-second-language speaker myself, I find it so difficult to develop any form of "taste" in English the same way I have in my mother tongue. A badly written sentence in my mother tongue feels painful in a sort of physical way, while bad English usually sound OK to me, especially when asserted in the confident tone LLMs are trained in. I wish I could find a way to develop such sense for the foreign languages I currently use.
By the way, I'm not nostalgic about the tech of those years, but I definitely think that we unlearned a few things along the way