Every tool sits on a layer
you didn't write.
The framework on a language.
The language on a runtime.
The runtime on an OS.
All of it on hardware
doing something physical.
You don't need to know
all the way down.
But go one layer deeper
than you strictly have to.
Because the abstraction
is great until it leaks —
and it always leaks eventually —
and when it does,
the person who understands
the layer below
is the one who fixes it.
The others just wait
and hope.
Tools change every few years.
The layer beneath them
changes far more slowly.
Bet your learning
on the slow layer.
The magic of a tool
is just a thing
someone built on top of
something you can understand.
Go look underneath.
That's where the leverage stays.
– Serguey Asael Shinder
Top comments (0)