[TeMPOraL]

Yes, what you describe is the point at which abstractions meet your problem from the bottom. You're not developing solutions yourself down to level of pure physics, but that's because we have a solid abstraction layer of digital computing. Your job is to work down from the problem idea until you connect to that layer.

It still doesn't change the fact that the surface area of that layer is enormous, and so is the space between it at the bottom and your problem at the top. All the details in between is what you need to figure out.

I'm not completely sure the bottom can be qualitatively raised very far up. The digital computing abstraction is a qualitative model change, from physics to mathematics. Experience suggests that when you decompose a business problem, the lowest algorithmic details very often end up on, or slightly above, that bottom layer - so you need the ability to work on that level. Of course, if you're willing to limit your scope and problem domain, then a lot of things can be abstracted further - but they won't generalize.