> Math and physics are kind of like programming and are pretty well figured out by now.
I used to think this too. Then I got into machine learning and modern physics. There is still much in both fields left unresolved, both empirically and philosophically. I suspect the same is true of programming. For instance, machine learning aided programming (the next generation of syntax checking, with recommendations) will no doubt open up new ways to be even more productive, and new tools will crop up to support that. Maybe machine-aided debugging gets way better and this leads to bettering ecosystems because it can catch (and maybe fix) breakages better. Right now, I think it's amazing that all these things like npm, pip, and apt hold together as well as they do (but the extent to which they don't is a huge time suck and productivity killer).
I used to think this too. Then I got into machine learning and modern physics. There is still much in both fields left unresolved, both empirically and philosophically. I suspect the same is true of programming. For instance, machine learning aided programming (the next generation of syntax checking, with recommendations) will no doubt open up new ways to be even more productive, and new tools will crop up to support that. Maybe machine-aided debugging gets way better and this leads to bettering ecosystems because it can catch (and maybe fix) breakages better. Right now, I think it's amazing that all these things like npm, pip, and apt hold together as well as they do (but the extent to which they don't is a huge time suck and productivity killer).