[gnurant]

Why the whole stack?

There is some perl adage about a good programmer being a lazy programmer. Learn the shortcuts. I think python is a pretty good one, so might be emacs.

I think you generate code. Programming and implementing are probably better verbs, in my opinion.

I have worked with a CS graduate that struggled with practical application. And programmers that can't write from scratch.

Rudiments such as coding paradigms get you a long way, so does cut and paste and a bit of glue code. Reuse where possible.

You can get lost in theory, you can learn and learn more and more; but you can also thrive on a minimal subset of something larger - like a programming language. You can't learn everything!

You can understand a language without speaking it - and possibly get by with grunts, nods and hand gestures.