[monocasa]

I'm someone who went from high-level to low-level. Software guy that does firmware, HDL, disassembly RE, some board design and layout, and have done a he high level, react frontend connected to a modern distributed backend with all the kubernetea and what have you

I enjoy the low-level work more, but that's more of a personal preference.

You can for sure solve high-level problems easier, being below it on the abstraction hierarchy, but your work just comes with new problems. I have never beat my head harder against the wall the trying to figure out something that was a chip bug that eventually becomes new errata (if you're lucky enough for the chip vendor to answer your emails in the first placeti get the errata reported).

It doesn't really protect you from politics unless you're the only low-level person in your shop and no one understands what you do, in which case you just stagnate instead. If you're not careful you tend to get paid less too since high-level folk tend to be closer to the flow of money.

I like the work, and wouldn't trade it, but it's not a panacea to engineering org issues in your career.