"But what will most certainly be forgotten is there was a generation of students in the 1980s and 1990s who were encouraged to use flow charts, long after the reason for using them had disappeared."

I don't know if I entirely agree with his conclusion. The smartest people I know code with a pen and paper. When they're on the bus or subway. When relaxing, or thinking carefully while away from a computer.

Those who program in the shower and then write it down after before they forget. Analogue programming tools (pan/paper) are great tools.

I thought the article was going to end with him pointing out that he found a great practice that we can all benefit from now. Planning code ahead of time is still better than typing away, we're just not forced to do it anymore.