[atomicity]

What happened to the "average programmer" over time? They seem to be building things that make more money now. Isn't that the main reason companies pay for software engineers?

I believe the "decline" is due to the fact that being a software engineer nowadays is more like being a sysadmin or DBA than a programmer of the past. You spend 80% of your time using frameworks and systems that you don't fully understand (or even understand a bit).

[imglorp]

Sussman and Abelson got tired of that decline, calling it "programming by poking", and quit teaching SICP.

I call it glue and duct tape. Everything is integration these days. Mixed blessing of that resusability we were promised and the poking that goes with it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160504164044/http://www.poster...

Discussion at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11628080