At the start of my career I was being paid for the code I wrote.

By the end of my career I was being paid for the code I didn't have to write.

One of the nicest complements I ever got from a coworker was that he was astonished how much I accomplished with so little code. Everything I built was designed to be easily and quickly extensible with minimal changes, I planned my structure for future needs.

That is why high paid programmers have been in demand, because learning that takes more than intelligence, it takes wisdom.