I don't think devs need to be nerds -- after all, it's just a job. FAANG devs I meet are rarely nerds -- they studied CS in college and got into tech because i

I don't think devs need to be nerds -- after all, it's just a job. FAANG devs I meet are rarely nerds -- they studied CS in college and got into tech because it fit their aptitudes and paid well. They work in sprints, clear out backlogs, are on-call sometimes, and generally get the job done. But on the flip side, as a nerd myself, I miss the passion that tinkerers bring and the hunger for learning new things and figuring things out. The kinds that know how cuckoo filters work, how to use /dev/shm, etc. Maybe it's just my limited sampling, but the majority of devs these days aren't very passionate about their job. Part of it might be a function of them being a very tiny cog in a very big wheel where they have little autonomy to invent new things. There's also the long work hours and TC-maximizing mentality that leaves them no room to engage their interests, if they had any to begin with.