[etatoby]

I agree.

Some “safeguards,” eminently type systems (with algebraic types and inference if possible) I've slowly come to value a lot, especially when maintaining a codebase for an extended period of time.

But otherwise, I still prefer to reason over my code, with the aid of at most a few debug prints / logs. Breakpoints I only use very rarely. Other debugger features not at all.

But I remember it taking many years before I could build a complete working picture of the code I was writing (or reading) in my head. Before that, I was basically horsing around. Thankfully, that was around high school time. By the time I got into the industry, I already had that skill finely developed.

Nowadays, I don't think many fresh graduates have it, and yet the industry prefers hiring them, rather than more experienced (older) people. Go figure.