Try to define a specific item like the closest cat to you so that anyone, just from reading the definition, can recognize that cat anywhere. You could write a whole book and not be done. Or you could stamp the cat with some id (symbols) in and refer to that. As long as that id is not repeated (rule), the system is ok.
Formalism is defining stuff, and add rigid rules that are consistent with each other. Once that done, it allows anyone to reach the same thinking location as the original person. Formalism is a knowledge transfer tool.
> My tech career was just converting specs from clients and employers into machine code, with extra steps.
If all you did was that, I’m quite sad for you as yourself should have automated your job to remove that tedium.
I would describe my job as designing a system that respect all the constraints of the situation. Some of them comes from specs, some comes from the technical platform, and some are just future possible interactions. The system is what I modify, coding is just how I do it.
When I see people abandon their work to AI, the other consequence is that they abandon their control of the system as well. They can’t explain how it works, what’s its reliability, and whether it can be improved (or part of it reused in another context).