This article's question reminded me of and old and dark joke: when "power user" comes to the grizzled sysadmin with a printout of his very first program and asks "sir, can you see where the error is" to which grizzled sysadmin replied "in DNA" without ever looking away from his screen. Same here.. problem is in DNA of conservatism. They are attached to material stuff thus with each iteration removing themselves further from humanity. It's i escapable for them to end up here.
Who's very first program? The sysadmin or powerruser? Neither of them are likely to make programs, and idk why anyone would bring a printout of a program to a sysadmin to inspect.
I can't tell if this is self-deprecation of sysadmin or a PEBCAK joke.
This likely originates from the Before Times when universities would have a full time sysadmin who would often write some of the software for the computer system/network at the university. See Bastard Operator From Hell for an example.