Reading this leads me to wonder: Is a large part of what makes a "5% programmer" or whatever, that they are so much better at comprehension/figuring-it-out, and retaining what they've figured out for next time?
Compared to who I was, say, ten years ago, I'm better at grokking the system in general. But for many projects keeping the entire thing in my head is impossible, so another thing I feel I've gotten better at over time is how to figure out which part of the system I need to hold in my head as I work on things.
Those people are practically exalted today, whereas their existence should indicate that for the vast majority of people, computers are inhumane and inefficient in the Bret Victor sense: http://worrydream.com/TheHumaneRepresentationOfThought/note....