Maybe, just maybe, they got out because they could see far ahead at the mess coding would become in the future. They were there at a time when the computer staff were more respected members of an organisation, rather than just a cost centre to be minimised and offshored.
Maybe, just maybe, they could foresee a horrendous time when technology was chosen as it was the flavour of the month, regardless of how good the technology actually was (see: Ruby on Rails, and about every single JS framework to date).
Mostly though, they could probably see the fact that most coding work was going to be mundane, bug fixing, and working in an industry that never seems to learn, but throws away knowledge and experience, and focuses solely on the new shiny, and keeps thinking it has invented something new, when it is really just a poor rehash of something earlier, something that was probably more solid and more robust.
Mostly though, they could probably see the fact that most coding work was going to be mundane, bug fixing, and working in an industry that never seems to learn, but throws away knowledge and experience, and focuses solely on the new shiny, and keeps thinking it has invented something new, when it is really just a poor rehash of something earlier, something that was probably more solid and more robust.
Maybe.