If you are old enough to remember the Y2K buzz slash fear, because it stemmed from old legacy computer systems and software that somehow had internal program clocks not designed to handle '00'. The whole world was supposed to go dark with chaos and mayhem unleashed and running rampant in 2000. But that didn't happen, unless you had heavily invested in dot.com stocks.
There is something to say about old stuff that still works and why get rid of it? Furniture and homes last centuries, cars last a generation some of the time, and airplanes even longer than cars. So why not keep green screen computers or legacy systems in place? If it isn't broke why replace it?
There is a truism to that statement, but an interesting concept I read somewhere or heard somewhere, (I want to give credit to the person who thought about or research it), was that the more sophisticated the technology was, the more faster it would need to be replaced. So, furniture and homes are low technology, so it doesn't need to be replaced as often. Nothing crazy had come to airplanes since the turbine engine, other than small incremental step changes, but the technology to make it fly is still quite old, and cars, while becoming more sophisticated, especially with Tesla and electric vehicles, it's a motor driving a carriage on 4-wheels.
But think of the cars for a moment. I remember when having a 10+ year old car was still considered a pretty good used car, and many people had cars that old. Today, people change cars every 3-years now. As cars become more enveloped in tech, it is increasing in frequency of being disposed and replaced.
I know how fast computers change. I remember in 2000, I bought the latest and greatest desktop computer. A Pentium III 500 MHz with a 10-gig hard drive. A friend of mine thought it was awesome, so he bought the same computer a month later, but his was a Pentium III 700 MHz with a 20-gig hard drive, and then later that same year the Pentium IV came out.
I kept that computer around for a few years, but later did upgrade to something newer, and the cycle continues with mobile phones and devices today. So why keep these legacy systems around?
Because there are people who don't want to change, even if everything else is changing around them. I heard a great story today from someone that told the story of their grandparents’ home that went from having an outhouse to indoor plumbing. This home was outfitted with a bathroom and toilet, but the grandfather refused to do his business there, instead he went out to the outhouse, because to him, you don't relieve yourself in the house. It was what always happened and always was before, so they kept the outhouse just for him.
This is true in today's businesses who keep these legacy systems around. They need to change or adapt, but they don't, because they can't get over what they have always done and used. Being open and knowing that change always comes and technology changes even faster, that there may be a place for legacy systems, but some day, the horse and buggies need to get off the road.
