You're not really wrong on many of your points, but you look at everything from a power user/developer mindset and that's too narrow of an approach, sorry.
I.e. you should realize programming is not for everybody, not even close, so the claim that things are easier now is very much true for a lot of people out there. As such there's not much to laugh at, in fact that sounds borderline disrespectful to me.
> You're not really wrong on many of your points, but you look at everything from a power user/developer mindset and that's too narrow of an approach, sorry.
I sometimes wonder if how people talked about 'this whole writing and reading thing' way back when. Perhaps there's a future where the average person will be what we now consider a 'power user'?
Much as there's the criticize about current-day computer use, as someone who was considered a 'nerd' for chatting online in my teens, it's still amazing to see extremely non-typical 'nerds' sit at their laptops or phones chatting with others. Or to have conversation about gaming with people who fit the 'jock' stereotype.
I'd love to hear from historians how the 'common people' thought about writing back in the day when most people were illiterate.
I guess we (although I am not the person you replied to) have a fundamental disagreement here. I think absolutely, everyone is able to code, a little. Not to be a career programmer, mind you, and I have no expectation that they should be able to produce readable or maintainable code. I have a weakly-held opinion that people shouldn't have to code if they choose not to. However, I think a little coding knowledge is essential for digital autonomy, which is more and more synonymous with regular autonomy, and that everyone ought to have that.
