> Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers l

> Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like me can get a job. Assembly isn't that hard. You'd have still gotten a job, but your employer just wouldn't have gotten as much productivity out of you (so they'd either have had to hire more programmers or write less software).