I think he means the savviness in the art of programming the ideas. The skill and art involved in finding interesting and efficient ways to effect ideas and solutions to problems. It is(or was) fun for a good number of us who joined before AI changed the game. Now its dismissed tending to a waste of time, hence the supposed loss in savviness over time.

Author here. You described it perfectly. That's precisely the idea I wanted to describe in the article