I get that over employment is an issue, but cutting 75% of the workforce seems a bit too much. At that point I don't understand how the engineering team can cope, not even mentioning the loss of knowledge in the codebase and the loss of morale.
Sure. I have a book about Basic from the 1980s. Obviously when I got it, the book was way outdated, but served as a nice introduction to programming in general and what to expect. (I was six at the time. Didn't realize the full extent of the book.)