[jorgeleo]

When you build a skyscraper you don't need to design ever brick, but that is the wrong analogy. You do need to understand the properties of the different bricks so you pick the right ones, and use them properly, otherwise the building will crumble under its own weight.

If you write a heap sort algorithm you don't need to understand it in assembly... Except if you need to optimize performance. If you ignore the network stack while you write an HTTP app, you might not know how to protect from a man in the middle attack, your particular app would not need it... But maybe the next one does. You might not understand how chrome and Mac OS works... But then if pop ups start to appear you will not know what to do.

While some levels of abstractions make things easier to deal with, programming is more about process building than specific tools, and I feel that the original article got right