It's hard for me to "get into" developers who don't know how the system works. I don't mean they have to be full-fledged sysadmins, but it just seems natural to

It's hard for me to "get into" developers who don't know how the system works. I don't mean they have to be full-fledged sysadmins, but it just seems natural to me that they should have a decent understanding of the electronics, how to assemble the hardware, and what's involved in tuning it and keeping it all running. It may have something to do with my education being EE, but that's not the heart of it. I never practiced EE. I taught myself (more or less in order) building circuits, programming, building PCs from pieces, and elementary system administration. I know there are lots who never "get" all three, but the best I knew did.