Several people have pointed out that people lacking the word "programmer" in their job description write code to get their jobs done. But what happens when they have two scripts that look similar to them but one finishes in an hour and the other is still running two weeks later? Then you need someone to break out the big O notation, look at the source code for the high level language and figure out what's really happening.
The need for this will continue to diminish over time in most firms. However, for companies that provide software over the internet this will remain very important (make something at Google 5% faster and you're probably saving them a whole lot of money). So, just one more reason to make sure your career does not hinge on getting paid to write software at a place where software is not the main source of revenue.
Several people have pointed out that people lacking the word "programmer" in their job description write code to get their jobs done. But what happens when they have two scripts that look similar to them but one finishes in an hour and the other is still running two weeks later? Then you need someone to break out the big O notation, look at the source code for the high level language and figure out what's really happening.
The need for this will continue to diminish over time in most firms. However, for companies that provide software over the internet this will remain very important (make something at Google 5% faster and you're probably saving them a whole lot of money). So, just one more reason to make sure your career does not hinge on getting paid to write software at a place where software is not the main source of revenue.