[bjliu]

Programming IS hard. You can ask the PhD. Computer Science students at any decent college and they will tell you that they are humbled because the field of programming is so vast and wonderful and full of mystery. I think we can admit that we have discovered .000000000000000001% of the things that can be discovered at this point in the field of programming.

[kragen]

I think you overestimate our knowledge of programming. Still, it seems like the pace of discovery has slowed down considerably since the 1960s, for whatever reason.