Everyone should also have a solid grasp of calculus, freshman physics and Maxwell's equations, comparative history, various forms of government, multiple models of ethics and the reasoning used to reach them, media and manipulation literacy, logistics management, and preferably a second or third language.

In short, everyone should have a classical four-year liberal arts education.

Now, excuse me while I ignore what I should do, and focus on what puts food on the table. And, unfortunately, CMPT-101 programming skills aren't going to be it - ChatGPT can do that work better and cheaper than a 'basic level' human can, just like it can produce a five-paragraph essay better than a grade school child can.

If you're going to learn programming, you're going to need to learn it to the point where you're better at it than a dumb LLM. And that bar is significantly higher than 'basic knowledge' or even 'working knowledge'.

Nobody cares about my rusty Grade 8 French skills, or my crappy hand-stitching skills in a world when Google Translate and sewing machines exist.