"And thus, the ability to understand pointers and recursion is directly correlated with the ability to be a great programmer." Wouldnt a few decades ago the st

"And thus, the ability to understand pointers and recursion is directly correlated with the ability to be a great programmer." Wouldnt a few decades ago the statement have been: Recursion an pointers are not enough, to be a great programmer you absolutely need to understand X,Y.