All of this "you need to understand the code" discussion reminds me of when I was an undergrad. I worked in a computer with someone a fair bit older -- they had even worked with punchcard systems. He was always happy to oblige us with war stories from the olden times & we would lap them up.

He favorite axe to grind was how my generation put too much trust into the compiler. "Just because it compiles doesn't mean you're done. You need to look at the actual assembly. Compilers can be VERY inefficient."

This was in the 90s. There was some merit to his claim.

But today? How many people who write Javascript look at the actual assembly code that is run? Not many.

I can't help but wonder if this current "you need to understand the code" is the same thing all over again. And if in a few years, almost nobody will look at the generated Python, Ruby, etc.