I joined the purchasing department at Prentice-Hall in 1988 and saw How to Use and Understand dBase III+, which we'd just published, on my boss's secretary's desk my first day. She so regretted letting me take that because my job was supposed to be Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets but I turned everything into Clipper apps after the first month. Clipper really made my career by turning me into a full-time developer (and not the contract analyst I was supposed to be...).
I also wish I'd spent more time trying to get my parents to talk about the early parts of their lives. Only one grandmother lived until I was old enough to think of this, but I didn't think to do it with her either :(
As a childless American in his 60s on the edge of retirement, this article is eye opening. While it seems to me that Americans of the same age are not going through the same education, job, and marriage stresses, they are going through different job and relationship stresses. Ones that are very different from my generation. Honestly I wouldn't want to be in either situation.
I've found the Mandel Trilogy to be entertaining, too. Could be thought of as some world-building for the much later ND? But not as epic. Just three normal paperbacks.
