#grace hopper

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper with a PDP-11, Washington DC, 1978.

Computer pioneer Grace Hopper running programs on a Univac I computer in 1952.

Today we celebrate the birthday of computing pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who revolutionized programming with her work on COBOL and the first compiler. She coined the term "computer bug," after finding an actual moth in a machine! 🪲🖥️

And 8 days before my, Kropotkin and Sukhanov's birthdays!

WOW, AND DOLORES IBARURRI GOMEZ WAS BORN ON THE SAME DAY AS ME!!! AMD SHE WAS A PASSIONATE COMMUNIST!!!

GRACE HOPPER ALSO SHARES BIRTHDAY WITH ME! HOLY SHIT!!!

AND MASAKO OWADA, THE EMPRESS!

I'm a teacher myself, a college professor, and too often I see older people simply writing off young people and forgetting that they themselves used to be young and what it was like. Given that, it was great to see a woman of 76 (at the time) delivering such a fantastic take. Honestly, I think she hit the nail on the head, and you should read it in full:

"I find we have a very bad habit of underestimating our young people. I think we totally fail to recognize how much more they know than we knew at the same age. I can make the comparison. They've had radio and television all their lives long for both information and misinformation. I didn't have a radio until I was a senior in high school, I built a crystal set. I didn't have a vacuum tube set until I was a senior in college, that was the year the superheterodyned circuit first came out. I knew man would never walk on the moon, they know he has. They know all about jet airplanes. They can't remember their first flight in an airplane, they were taken on a jet to visit their grandparents when they were babies. I didn't fly on an airplane until I was a sophomore in college. I spent 10 dollars, and that was a heck of a lot of money in 1925. I went up in an open cockpit biplane, built out of wood and linen and wire, and it went up about a hundred and fifty feet and floated along at eighty miles an hour. I'd be scared to death to go near it today. They know all about jets. I was reminded of this not long ago because I was walking out to take Allegheny city big commuter flight from Washington to Philadelphia - I guess it's ransom airlines now - and there was a young man beside me. He was looking up at that plane, finally he turned to me and he said 'is that thing safe?' and I said 'yeah, why not?' He said 'I've never flown in a prop plane before.' We have a whole generation that's never flown in prop planes. We've totally forgotten how much more they know than we knew at the same age. On the other hand, they are no more mature than we were at the same age. And they're looking for something which they cannot always put in words. And I've seen it across the country as I've talked to schools and colleges and to our young people. What they're looking for is positive leadership. I mean leadership in the in the old Navy sense. It's a two way street, it's loyalty up and loyalty down, it's respect for your superior and keep him informed of what you're up to and take care of your crew. We've forgotten that, we think leadership only comes from some guy up there at the top. It's everybody's job. It's everybody's job to take care of their crew. … I think we forget that the four and five year old's are learning arithmetic. A little professor. The six year old's are getting speak and spell. You better look out, there's going to be a generation coming that will know how to spell. The seven year old's, of course, are learning BASIC, running the computers. I know one man that bought a computer and took it home, his son is teaching him BASIC. His son is seven. Of course I know another guy that took a computer home, now he has to apply to his three children for computer time. They're tremendously bright and they're out there, the brightest youngsters we have ever had. … And yet somewhere in the last 30 years we lost that word 'leadership.' We went overboard for management, partly under the influence of Mr. McNamara, partly under the business schools. We concentrated on this quarter's bottom line, this year's fitness report. We forgot to look ahead for the next five years for any enterprise, and we lost that concept of leadership. Loyalty up and loyalty down, it's the one thing those youngsters are looking for. You can't do it all by management. If I had a Marine standing here beside me, what he would say would be, 'When the going gets rough, you cannot manage a man into combat, you must lead him.' And I think he would further add, 'you manage things, you lead people.' We need to bring that back very badly, not only in the armed forces, but in all of government, throughout business and industry. It's the one thing that those youngsters are looking for - good, positive leadership." Capt. Grace Hopper (U.S. Navy) in 1982