[Nursie]

> most of the time it doesn't matter.

It's true.

However to have an understanding of things from top to bottom is definitely a benefit. People get silo'd in their various layers and lack comprehension of much that's going on below (or above) them.

It can make you a more rounded developer, to have a good idea of the whole stack, even if it's not always in-depth and some of the mental models used aren't strictly true.

[codeulike]

Its a benefit, but whats the cost/benefit of the time it takes to learn that, vs maybe learning something else?

[Nursie]

As someone who's coded everything from web front ends to embedded systems with no OS and manual memory partitioning, via mainframes, network management tools and all sorts of other things, I'd say the benefit is pretty high!

Someone needs to know how it all works, someone needs to build the kernels, the low-level libraries, the compilers, network protocols server programs etc etc.

You can certainly have a great career without them, I wouldn't dispute that.