There's still a lot to be excited about. Here's just a few things that excite me:

* Programmers are building and financing viable products on their own.

* They're deploying to the cloud because it's cheaper and more approachable for the little guy.

* They have new distribution methods available to them via App Stores and don't have to rely on software salesmen.

* They can measure nearly everything their users do.

* They can work from anywhere on distributed teams and have a good shot at success while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.

In short, yes programming hasn't changed much, but the way software gets built is changing a lot. That's still very exciting.