As someone who has had two decades doing "glamorous topics involving hot technologies" I have found myself in a position that I am picking up COBOL commercially for the first time.

The last time I coded in COBOL I had long hair (I had hair!!!), dressed as though Mad Max was my better dressed antipodean cousin and had a wonderful youthful life of too much fun (no details - I survived and moved on in life without being arrested ;-)) and not enough sleep.

I am not nostalgic, as the past lies where is should remain, but neither am I too idealistic to burden myself with refusing to touch a technology considered outdated all those years ago.

The reason I believe that I have been successful in my career so far? I have tried to avoid considering any technology so "sexy" that the application of common sense and basic techniques are overlooked. (Particularly early on I proved how human I was and was less successful at achieving that though).