I agree with you that the ends of the spectrum have been mis-identified. I sort-of agree with you that the spectrum should be "learn why v. just want to use it"

I agree with you that the ends of the spectrum have been mis-identified. I sort-of agree with you that the spectrum should be "learn why v. just want to use it". I'm would never consider myself a software developer, but I write code all day long and make a very good living doing it. I don't know b-trees. I don't know the algos. I DO know how to think outside the box, to make a creative solution that meets multiple needs, that often exceeds expectations in surprising ways, and blends together the best thinking from several different domains. I have worked with what I would consider "real" developers, but while I would consider many friends, I don't like how they think, I don't like how they react to new information, I would hate to do their jobs. So where am I on this spectrum? I don't know. I see absolutely zero need to study the things TFA talks about. I would rather study entirely different domains to bring that information in than learn the minutiae of a linked list I'm never going to implement from scratch anyway. Just my two cents.