Nobody starts projects using two digit years anymore, right? And most of the existing software that did was patched and or replaced for Y2K.
Also the part about a new millennium coming is temporarily not applicable.
I've worked a few jobs in the last 10 years (non-gov't), and I didn't experience paperwork around programming work.
The paperwork has moved into a digital format, but it's still there.
If you're in big business or government then there is still paperwork. These are political organisations and even doing a good job isn't satisfactory, in many cases I'd argue that appearing to do a good job on paper is what your task really is and any delivery of a working piece of code is second to it.
I certainly benefit from regular reminders of this.
Regularly stepping back and reevaluating assumptions/goals helps. (And write supporting tests, if you swing that way.)
I think these are probably valid cultural reflections, potentially ascribable in part to the (edited, time-lapse) nature of paper-publishing versus electronic.
"The first step in fixing a broken program is getting it to fail repeatably" - Tom Duff / Bell Labs
I wish the IRS followed this advice.
