From the First Computer, Through the Fields, to Globalization

On the coincidences that unfolded within a very carefully planned life.

I had my life plan figured out by the age of fifteen.

It was surprisingly specific: emigrate by the age of twenty-nine, learn languages, graduate from a good school, find an interesting job, and explore the world.

I dreamed of distant expeditions into the unknown, following in the footsteps of Zikmund and Hanzelka, Livingston and Richard Halliburton**.

I accomplished all of it.

What I hadn't planned for, however, were the coincidences that kept moving me into new situations along the way. Those simply couldn't be planned.

Today, let's take a look at the ones that gradually placed me right where something new was being born – technologies that continue to have a significant impact on our world today.

Let's take a closer look.

 Meet

THE FIRST MINICOMPUTER ,

the year 1976 

At the age of 24, as a final-year Computer Studies student at the Brno University of Technology, I found myself at the Brno trade fairs, where I was presenting companies with the first small computer made by Honeywell Bull.

Data was entered using a keyboard, and the results could be checked directly on the screen.

Something we take for granted today. Back then, it was almost a miracle.

In a way, it was an indirect predecessor of what we now consider standard computer operation* – although you still had to wait until 1985 for Microsoft Windows.

Until then, there were mainly huge corporate mainframe computers, where input data was "fed" in using punched cards.

The minicomputer at the trade fair was essentially a small server designed for banking applications.

The company first had to train me. And this was where the combination of two things I had deliberately included in my life plan came in very handy: French and computer science.

Meet:

THE FIRST ROUND BALER FOR STRAW,

the year is 1982

Another milestone came in 1982, when I worked at the Brno trade fairs for a French company that was one of the first behind the Iron Curtain to introduce machines for baling straw into cylindrical bales – today the most common way of baling straw in the fields.

BONUS – a feeling of freedom

Here I'll add a small story that was nevertheless very significant to me.

By then, I already had a Dutch passport. I had officially been Dutch for several months.

The French manager of the company's trade-fair stand was a great friend of our socialist government. And so, one day, he welcomed an old acquaintance to the stand – the Minister of Agriculture, accompanied by a group of experts.

My job was to interpret.

But as is often the case at events like this, my role was more like "Ferda Mravenec – a jack of all trades" – which also meant bartender and waitress.

The delegation was having coffee, and I was in the little kitchenette behind a curtain.

Suddenly, I heard the minister's voice:

"Comrade!"

I didn't react.

"Comrade!!! Where are you?"

Still nothing.

"Comrade, can't you hear me?"

The minister stuck his head into the kitchenette and loudly repeated:

"Comrade, can't you hear me?"

I turned around, completely calm.

I said: "Oh, I thought you were looking for some comrade. I'm not a comrade."

And then it happened.

Bliss.

I suddenly realized it fully.

I was free.

I had a Dutch passport.

I could look a powerful man straight in the eye and say: "I'm not a comrade."

Without fear.

Without consequences.

From the fields straight into the whirl of the big city

Meet:

THE  FIRST  ATMs  IN  AMSTERDAM,   

1986-89

I work in Amsterdam in the computer networks department of ABN, one of the largest banks in the world.

We are just putting the first four ATMs into operation in Amsterdam. And there are problems. They often don't work. Which, for an ATM, is quite a significant character flaw.

That summer, Paul and I make our first trip to South Africa.

At that time, South Africa was at the forefront of technological innovation in some areas. Think, for example, of the famous Dr. Christiaan Barnard, who performed the world's first successful human heart transplant here in 1967.

My definition of this part of Africa at the time?

American technology and service, European culture and cuisine, all set in the middle of wild African nature.

The best combination in the world.

North of Johannesburg, in the real subtropical Africa, in the small town of Tzanneen, I suddenly see a working ATM.

And there is a queue of locals waiting for it. It's Friday, payday has just arrived, and people are patiently lining up to collect their money.

I watch the whole ATM operation for a while.

It works. In Africa. In a small town.

And a simple thought crosses my mind:

If an ATM can work in a place where you would expect to find an elephant rather than a bank, surely it must be able to work in Amsterdam.

And so I said to myself at the time: when I get home, I'm going to find out why.

Meet:

THE FIRST ENGINEERS FROM INDIA ON THE NETWORK,  Namasté!

THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM, THE BEGINNING OF GLOBALIZATION

It is the end of the 1990s, and the development of computer technology is exploding. The first connections to the Internet via telephone lines are slowly becoming a reality, and the World Wide Web (WWW) is beginning to spread around the world.

Our bank, ABN AMRO (ABN after its merger with AMRO Bank), is one of the world's largest international banks, and together with several colleagues I am responsible for a network consisting of tens of thousands of connections. Hundreds of ATMs, around 300 bank branches, connections to the stock exchange, other banks, and so on.

I spend most of my time bringing new connections into operation and supporting the entire network. I specialize in international interconnections between banks and in securing communication with mainframe computers.

(For computer nerds and nitpickers: for security, the mainframe network uses the IBM SNA protocol, rather than the TCP/IP protocol that dominates today.)

One day, a thick, bound stack of papers lands on my desk.

My boss:

"Here's a new project. We're going to connect software engineers from India. They'll be programming for us. They're well educated and cheap."

Pause.

"This is a project proposal we gave to an American company nine months ago. The contractor in charge of the project has resigned and handed us an unfinished network design. You have to take it over."

Another pause.

"We have a budget of one million guilders."

And finally:

"And please, as quickly as possible."

I take the project and have a quick look through it.

I see that my predecessor has designed a connection via the heavens as well… Good thing Elon Musk's little satellite trains didn't exist back then – that would have made it even more expensive.

He can't be serious.

I don't feel like finishing someone else's solution.

So I start thinking about how I would do it – completely from scratch.

I know that the bank is connected to a major American company that has built its own secure worldwide network connecting businesses with mainframe computers.

So why not use that?

We certainly don't need to launch our own satellites.

All we need to do is set up secure access points to the network in India.

A few days after being given the assignment, I walk into my boss's office and announce:

"We've tested it. Everything works."

He looks at me in disbelief, as if I have just fallen out of a cherry tree.

"How much is it going to cost?"

I answer: "How many Indians will be working?"

"We'll start by testing with seven."

"Then it will be 15 guilders times the number of employees for the secure access."

He stares at me without saying a word.

"So… I'm calculating 7 × 15."

"A total of 105 guilders."

My boss looks at me for a moment.

"That's not possible. I want it in black and white."

So I gave him exactly that.

A project described on two A4 pages.
105 guilders.

And with that, without realizing it at the time, we opened the door to the future:

Programmers on the other side of the world, working across borders, international IT teams, support centers for major companies abroad. Today we simply call it – OUTSOURCING.

CONCLUSION

And so, I went from the first computer, through harvested fields and ATMs, all the way to globalization.

Which is actually quite a paradox.

Because when I was fifteen and planning my life, I wanted exactly the opposite.

I wanted to explore the world before it became fully connected, accessible, and the same everywhere.

I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Zikmund and Hanzelka, Livingston, and Halliburton.

I wanted a world full of mysteries and surprises. A world waiting to be discovered.

And instead, I helped create a world where you no longer have to go anywhere.

You just have to connect.

NOTES

* MRS> GUMP 

Refers to the symbolism of the famous film Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks.

The white feather represents the delicate balance between fate and chance, as well as freedom, lightness, and acceptance.

The box of chocolates — the famous line, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get," sums up the unpredictability of human destiny.

Running represents overcoming one's own limits as well as freedom of movement.

The film also shows the difference between what we can influence and what is the result of chance or fate.

** Richard Halliburton

Richard Halliburton (1900–1939)

An American traveler and writer who turned his journeys around the world into adventurous stories filled with history, exotic places, and romance. He visited sites connected with ancient civilizations and followed in the footsteps of famous explorers.

My favorite book: The Royal Road to ROMANCE