I don't know about ALGOL, but I've known people who still make more than a decent living thanks to their expertise in COBOL or Smalltalk.
Yes... but both of those have evolved significantly since the 1970's. Smalltalk wasn't even publicly released until 1980.
On Quora: What are some stupid things smart people do? Examples of common types of stupidity that are typical of otherwise very smart people.
Lee Semel's answer in particular would make a great post here: a "to don't" list. You may wish to go through and identify the cognitive bias or biases each is an example of.