Good read.

I think one thing that has changed permanently is coding by hand has become unnecessary. Programmers had edge over others because they knew the spec and syntax. Now that field has been leveled.

You still need to know the syntax but not the nitty gritty details and you don't need to be able to code a java's lambda's anonymous override or streams anymore. Just knowing it "somewhat" is enough.

But that's all that has changed.

What has not changed is the requirement for "systems" thinking and the general good practices. In fact, that has become even more important because earlier we were forced to think in existing patterns (editing pre-existing code), but now with coding agents, it can very easily duplicate the logic in its own module and call it a day.

So we need to be the forcing function here with our systems thinking and guardrails.