"under the hood" can go arbitrarily deep; nobody thinks everyone needs a deep understanding of the quantum physics governing how a transistor works to build a w

"under the hood" can go arbitrarily deep; nobody thinks everyone needs a deep understanding of the quantum physics governing how a transistor works to build a web app. But in my experience, people saying "under the hood" are using it with respect to the level of abstraction they are working with. There's a major inflection point in effectiveness when you go "one level deeper", or understand how the tools you are directly using are implemented, even though there are certainly many layers of abstractions below those tools. It helps a ton with debugging and performance work, and you start to really understand the limitations of your toolchain.