I coined the term "stupidity above and beyond the call of duty" for such incidents. Richard Feynman (ז״ל) would have referred to it as "cargo cult systems programming".
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of David Spiegel [00000468385049d1-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu] Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2023 10:05 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: not using SMPe Hi Ed, Thank you for the compliment! (Yeshiva training really pays off for arguing logically.) Now that I'm telling bank stories (this should really be a separate thread) ... At the same bank ... One day (1990), a colleague comes over and asks for help with his batch job failing. I looked at it and noticed that he was running the Sterling Forest Put Edit facility. (I had not needed to run this for several years.) I explained to him that since the advent of ++HOLD "cards", this was no longer necessary and a total waste of time. He said: "Yeah, but, the Group Leader said it had to be done." I took a deep breath and walked with him over to the Group Leader's desk. Me: "Excuse me for asking, but, why are you asking your colleague to waste time on this useless activity?" GL: "Ah ... you do not understand banking. We have always done it this way." I rolled my eyes at the TL and then promptly left. Later, when my colleague and I were out of sight and earshot of the TL, my colleague said that the TL said: "Don't talk to David anymore." (I gave this GL "Dino" as a nickname because they were busy barking orders all day long and reminded me of The Flintstones' character.) (I always say about banks (and I've worked at a bunch) that if they were even slightly intelligent, how much more they could earn for their shareholders.) Regards, David On 2023-03-14 21:44, Ed Jaffe wrote: > On 3/14/2023 6:05 PM, David Spiegel wrote: >> Hi Ed, >> I knew that there were means of ensuring integrity and that's why I >> asked the question. > > It was a brilliant question! > > His ignorance about why he should trust tape was the same reason he > distrusted the communication line. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
