Cobol Memes

While everyone's out here fighting over whether React is better than Vue, or if Rust will replace C++, or debating the merits of microservices versus monoliths, there's a silent army of COBOL developers quietly cashing checks that would make a FAANG engineer jealous. Born in 1959, COBOL is literally older than most programming paradigms we argue about today. Yet it still runs 95% of ATM transactions and processes about $3 trillion in commerce daily. Banks, insurance companies, and government agencies are desperate for COBOL devs because nobody learns it anymore—supply and demand at its finest. So while the tech bros are having a royal rumble about the hottest new JavaScript framework that'll be obsolete in 6 months, COBOL devs are just vibing, maintaining legacy systems, and getting paid premium rates to touch code that's been running longer than they've been alive. Job security? Try career immortality .

While everyone's fighting over whether React is better than Vue or if TypeScript is worth the hassle, COBOL developers are just sitting there eating their lunch, completely unbothered, making six figures maintaining banking systems from 1972. The language is older than most developers' parents, yet it still runs 95% of ATM transactions and 80% of in-person transactions. Banks literally can't find enough COBOL programmers, so they're paying obscene amounts to anyone who knows it. Meanwhile, the rest of us are rewriting our apps in the framework-of-the-month for the third time this year. Job security? More like job immortality. Those mainframes aren't going anywhere.

COBOL assignments are already punishment enough without the professor's commentary. First they tell you to add comments, so you write "*> move A to B" which is literally just repeating what the code says in slightly different words. Then they hit you with the "explain WHY not WHAT" lecture, so you craft these beautiful explanatory comments about copying values around. The code went from self-documenting to over-documented faster than a mainframe processes a batch job. Nothing says "I understand good practices" quite like explaining why you're moving variables in a language where everything is already painfully verbose.

When you're fresh out of bootcamp learning React and TypeScript, then someone casually mentions COBOL and you're like "what's that?" only to watch senior devs collectively lose their minds. For context: COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was created in 1959 and is still running critical banking systems, insurance companies, and government infrastructure worldwide. We're talking billions of transactions daily on code older than your parents. The problem? Nobody wants to learn it, everyone who knows it is retiring, and banks are desperately clinging to these systems because rewriting them would be like performing open-heart surgery on a patient running a marathon. New programmers see it as ancient history that should be extinct. Banks see it as the immovable foundation of global finance that cannot be destroyed without triggering financial apocalypse. The cognitive dissonance is *chef's kiss*. Fun fact: There are an estimated 220 billion lines of COBOL still in production today. That's roughly 43% of all banking systems. Sleep tight! 💀

The entire financial world runs on COBOL code written when dinosaurs roamed the earth. New programmers see this ancient language and want it burned at the stake, but banks cling to it like Gollum with the precious ring. Why rewrite millions of lines of working code when you can just pay COBOL developers obscene amounts of money instead? The banking industry's motto: "If it's broken enough to work for 60 years, don't fix it."

Young devs want to burn COBOL with fire, but banks cling to it like Gollum's precious. Why? Because those 60-year-old mainframes still process $3 trillion in daily transactions . Try migrating that legacy code and watch your career evaporate faster than VC funding in a recession. The ultimate job security isn't knowing the latest JavaScript framework—it's being the last person alive who remembers how to maintain that ancient COBOL system nobody dares to replace.

Finally, a political compass that makes sense! Instead of left vs. right, we've got "System Lang" vs "Toy Lang" - because nothing starts a flame war faster than calling someone's favorite language a "toy." And instead of authoritarian vs libertarian, we've got "Obsolete Lang" vs "Nu Lang" - where COBOL programmers are still making bank while the rest of us chase shiny new frameworks every six months. The placement is savage. Assembly and C sitting proudly in the "real systems" corner while Python and Ruby hang out in the "scripting for children" zone. And poor Brainfuck got exiled to the furthest corner possible - exactly where it belongs. This is basically a Rorschach test for developers. Whatever quadrant your favorite language is in tells everyone exactly what kind of programmer you are... and whether anyone wants to sit next to you at lunch.

The true family business - legacy COBOL code! Someone's friend just inherited a codebase last touched by mom in the 90s, while the reply cleverly points out this isn't the kind of inheritance pattern they teach in CS class. Nothing says job security like maintaining 30-year-old code written by your actual parent. The family that codes together, stays locked in maintenance hell together. If your resume says "COBOL" in 2023, banks are already throwing money at you while sobbing uncontrollably.

The family tree of code maintenance! Someone's friend learned COBOL (that ancient language from the 60s still powering banks and government systems) only to inherit a codebase last touched by his actual mother in the 90s. Talk about biological inheritance vs programming inheritance! While OOP enthusiasts would expect to extend a parent class with new methods, this poor soul got literal parental legacy code instead. The real inheritance tax is maintaining your mom's spaghetti code from the Reagan era. Bet those family dinners get awkward when he asks about the lack of documentation.

Two types of inheritance in the wild: OOP inheritance where classes inherit properties, and then there's the family kind where you inherit legacy COBOL code last touched by someone's mother in the 90s. Talk about technical debt with actual family drama! This poor soul didn't just inherit methods and properties—they inherited decades-old spaghetti code with a side of maternal guilt. And somewhere, a CS professor is crying because this is definitely not what they meant by "parent-child relationships" in class diagrams.