I think the real value is in the ability to recognize the opportunity to apply an algorithm when it arises. You can't just look that up on stack overflow and th

I think the real value is in the ability to recognize the opportunity to apply an algorithm when it arises. You can't just look that up on stack overflow and the alternative is usually spending 10x as long to write a large logic hairball filled with bugs and missing edge cases. Apply another 10x multiplier for the maintenance. I've inherited enough of these (deeply nested code hairballs that can be replaced by a comparatively miniscule set of tree traversals or something) to change my view from "algo is just programmer status signalling" to "algo is a core competency that matters."