> When I started programming professionally in the 90s, the internet came of age and I remember being told "in my days, we had books and we remembered things" which of course is hilarious because today you can't possibly retain ALL the knowledge needed to be software engineer due to the sheer size of knowledge required today to produce a meaningful product. It's too big and it moves too fast.

But I mean, you can get by without memorizing stuff sure, but memorizing stuff does work out your brain and does help out in the long run? Isn't it possible we've reached the cliff of "helpful" tools to the point we are atrophying enough to be worse at our jobs?

Like, reading is surely better for the brain than watching TV. But constant cable TV wasn't enough to ruin our brains. What if we've got to the point it finally is enough?

I'm sure I'm biased by my age (mid 40s) but I think you are onto something there. What if this constant decline in how people learn (on average) is not just a grumpy old man feeling? What if it's something real, that was smoothened out by the sheer increase of the student population between 1960 and 2010 and the improvements of tooling?