[tremon]

That's funny, because as a generalist I tend to look down on single-purpose developers. Way too often they don't know anything about the rest of the system they're interfacing with and produce locally optimal but globally inferior solutions. My main gripes include frontend developers that don't understand HTTP and backend developers that don't understand SQL.

And besides, where does your notion of "full stack" begin? Is it backend application code? Operating system libraries? Kernel code? Hardware drivers? I'd argue "full stack developer" is a misnomer anyway, since no developer can (or would want to) write both kernel drivers and html/css frontends.

[bryanlarsen]

> since no developer can (or would want to) write both kernel drivers and html/css frontends.

You do realize this comment is going to pull the exceptions out of the woodwork?

I wrote all of the software for the first version of the Teledyne Lumenera Ethernet cameras. Everything from assembly codes in the bootloader to CSS in the on-camera web pages. Heck, I even had to review and debug the PCB design before I could start.

I don't think this is a particularly uncommon experience. Embedded development usually has very small teams, and very often the hardware has HTTP API's.

P.S. I'm available for work. Information in profile.

[tremon]

Heh, oops. Should have seen that coming.

Yeah, it's probably my personal bias showing. I'm fine with most parts of the stack (like you, down to PCB design), but UI/GUI/WUI work is an area that I try very hard to avoid.

[bryanlarsen]

I'd rather avoid UI work too. But if it's part of an otherwise very interesting project, count me in.

[eschneider]

I dunno...that's actually my job. :) I work (mostly) doing embedded software (drivers/os/apps) but also help with some of the supporting back end web services and yeah, some of the front end code as well. It's handy for the company since I can work on whatever's most needful from week-to-week as well as take features from device to backend to production. Why would I want to? Well, I get to learn (more) new things and the scenery changes more often. It's not a bad gig if you can pull it off.

[lupire]

The problem in both cases is being an asshole who doesn't respect the value of other people's skills.

The main thing "wrong" with a specialist is that not every org needs a full time specialist, so specialists are more likely to need to work as consultants.

[jdmg94]

I agree with the notion that "full stack" means different things for everyone but there's a difference between a specialist and someone who only knows html/css. I've normalized relational dbs, made REST and GraphQL APIs but I specialize in making the frontend applications (web/ios/android/etc). I can wear all the hats on my side projects but they're not gonna pay me double for working the whole stack

[sngz]

this so much. Can't count the number of times I've been ignored after warning others about things that will happen down the line cause I don't just throw the pig over the wall to the testers and ops guys and consider the job done. I'm usually able to see problems that will pop up later down the line since I've done the code writing, and the testing, and setup the CI/CD process, all the security hardening and STIGs, and after they ignore me I tend to be the one helping them fix it.

When I interview for jobs they always ask very specialized questions. Everyone wants a generalist but refuse to interview them or pay them like one.