I also find myself relying less on debuggers over time, but I think it’s for very different reasons. Namely, I get more of the kind of feedback I’d want either

I also find myself relying less on debuggers over time, but I think it’s for very different reasons. Namely, I get more of the kind of feedback I’d want either before even running the code (type checker, linter, etc all providing instant feedback in editor); or from improved code navigation tooling (type checker/editor again); or from years of honing my test writing instincts (if it’s worth debugging, it’s likely also worth testing, so you don’t have to debug it again). But this is all very different from “just” thinking through the code. If anything, my cognitive capacity has declined significantly with age. I depend heavily on tools to shorten the paths I have to think through in the first place. And tests (if you’re doing TDD anyway) are just a more efficient “run, error, modify” after all.