This is true, but it's probably important to point out how unique the situation is for biologists. We, quite suddenly, have the ability to generate large data

This is true, but it's probably important to point out how unique the situation is for biologists. We, quite suddenly, have the ability to generate large data sets to address very particular problems. Since each experiment is different, this process cannot be automated, but the basic workflow never changes that much. All we need is to ask some basic questions about the data; the more complicated stuff is generally not very interesting, or even harmful, as we're ultimately dealing with very blunt tools. We want to know about simple correlations, feed things into statistics libraries, and visualize the data with a few well-known tools. The result is that anyone who takes the time to learn a little programming knows most of what they need to know. You learn a few good libraries and you're done. Bonus points if you write a script to automate your workflow a little. I'm not saying this is uncommon, but it seems especially lucrative for biologists currently. Even if you're just putting libraries together like Lego pieces, you're getting a lot done. You don't need to proceed into programmatic thinking, thought the reward is certainly there.