Two perpendicular thoughts:
1) I am amazed how easy it still is for a large program (like Blender or Firefox) to fail to compile on a modern, common distro. A large list of dependencies greatly increases the chances of compile-time mishaps and makes the whole process resemble surgery.
2) I am amazed at how easy it is to cross-compile a program between different architectures. In many ways, the process of going from a bunch of text files to executables running on completely different OS’s still feels like magic. If compiling is surgery, cross-architecture compiling is a brain transplant. I hope the sense of wonder never leaves.