One accurate measurement is worth more than a thousand expert opinions - Admiral Grace Hopper (click on her picture for the bio).
I once carried Admiral Hopper's bags, or tried to carry her bags. She came to speak at our ACM meeting in Orange County, California. My job was to pick her up at the airport. When I met her at the gate - long before serious security when you could do things like that - I asked if I could take her bag. Her answer was no young man I'm capable to doing that myself. She always worn her full dress uniform. The dress blue like that on the left. She was an Admiral afterall.
She gave a riveting talk for 2 hours to a packed room of jaded aerospace engineers. Yes, writing software for money for the Air Force, Navy, and Army in those days was called software engineering. We "engineered" the software system, regardless of what the agile pundits say today can't be done. It was done and it was done quickly, with emerging requirements, and limited budget - warfighters were waiting in the field.
I then took her back to the airport. We chatted a bit in the way, but she refused again any help from me. She must have been in her 70's at that time, but was taking no quarter from the youngsters trying to help her.
She was present at the creation of COBOL - a Navy funded program. Was present at the first bug which literally was an insect stuck in a relay in the computer.
An experience I'll never forget, even after 30 years.
