I still do not understand how anyone can become a software engineer and not stop to learn how an operating system or network works. I would have gone crazy if I

I still do not understand how anyone can become a software engineer and not stop to learn how an operating system or network works. I would have gone crazy if I'd never learned how network protocols work, or how web servers work, or virtual memory, or schedulers, security models, etc. It's like manufacturing tires without knowing how an engine works. Don't you want to know how torque and horsepower affect acceleration and velocity? How else will you know what forces will be applied to the tires and thus how to design for said forces?