It looks nothing like C++ decades ago, it is effectively a completely different language. I found C++ unusable before C++11, and even C++11 feels archaic these days. Idiomatic C++20 and later is almost a decent language.
"Modern C++ Design" was the first book that highlighted template metaprogramming and showed you ways to use it as a Turing complete programming language in itself. Even a decade+ after it was printed my friend said it was recommended reading for employees within Google so I gave him mine - but I'm not sure about these days.
Talking about how much you can do with C++ templates made me think of that.
