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Comment by lgkk | Hacker News Reader

My dad, who wanted to move us to America for a long time, got his start in programming and the ability to achieve that goal thanks to punch cards. Hope it’s ok to share my anecdote thanks for bringing this memory up.

He has a basic certificate in metallurgy, and he had a job delivering punch cards from an IT company office to where they would be executed. He would wait, collect the printouts, and head back. I guess curiosity got to him and he got to know the guys there and started on his path of programming. It led to be able to move to America for a better life.

Long story short, my dad and punch cards as well as some super lucky karma are the reason I’m able to have a better life today :) thankful to this piece of tech.

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Idle curiosity: what was the step between "he got to know the guys there" and "started on his path of programming"? How did he turn knowing some computer guys into becoming one?

"Back then", just being nearby and showing interest was often all that was needed. I remember wandering into the engineering computer lab my first day of college and being asked if I wanted an account by someone only a few years older than I. (I promptly locked up my shell, didn't know what to do and power cycled the machine under the desk. Got a quick reminder that multi-user machines didn't need to be the large rackmounted things I was used to. Oops.)

(My story about fathers and punchcards involves hanging out in the lab with my dad when he was doing his CS homework. I had great fun punching dirty words into the scrap cards and crashing while playing lunar lander on the greenbar printer.)

It was like this in the 90s as well. I would hover around noc closets and server rooms and just chat it up with the admin who came by. They were always eager to show off their systems. Then I would ask if they need help and I would end up doing network admin or sysadmin or building a system for them for a few months.

Come to think about it, this is still a solid activity at smaller shops. I have recently gotten work from my colo provider by simply chatting with them. The ROI is not the same as early days in my career but a sale is a sale

Is it really? That's great! I'd think they might be a bit more, um, reserved, nowadays.

He ended up getting a job as a cobol programmer at that IT company. The guy who ran the punch execution helped him understand what was going on and gave him some books.

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