[simonpantzare]

I'm doing backend development but interact with frontend developers all the time. Something I've noticed, especially among younger devs, is that they are sometimes unknowledgeable about how HTTP, DNS, certificates, and related tech work, and have a hard time grasping why state persistence and synchronization need to be done a certain way. The problems arise when something goes wrong and they immediately need support from backend, when a little more knowledge about the technologies below React or Angular would suffice.

[allsunny]

Sure, but to be fair, I've met plenty of back-end developers, even senior ones, who don't know the intricacies of DNS, certificates, OS, etc. It's best to recognize the domain is enormous and a lot of folks have a desire, or arguably a requirement, to specialize.

I'm reasonably certain that if we created a union of all of the topic sets that HackerNews commenters identified as requisite knowledge to be a software engineer it would take a lifetime to plow through.

Like putting together a winning baseball team, it's best to recognize that your team wins when you put together a group of contributors that contribute their specific honed skills.

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas Huxley

[woah]

Each Hacker News commenter believes that the exact set of topics that they are knowledgeable on are requisite to be a software engineer.

[simonpantzare]

Nothing against specialization really. I wouldn't hire a chef who doesn't know how to work a knife though. :)