Almost every engineer I’ve worked with have this skill level, but they’re not given the leeway, direction, or advice to get to the conclusion. Netflix must have an amazing culture in these areas.
I've been a high performance systems engineer for a number of investment banks over the last 10+ years and people with deep knowledge like that are quite rare; that's why we get paid handsomely.
Mind sharing what field you work in that gathers so much talent like that?
Knowledge != skill. With the skill you can acquire the knowledge given the right conditions and motivation. I would say the vast majority of engineers I work with have never had the need or opportunity to invest the time or experiential opportunities to acquire the knowledge required - but they COULD. I actually find that quite sad, and hence my depression I noted. Nowadays this is extending all the way through school. Machine architecture and low level machine microcode etc isn’t universally taught in CS programs any more.
I’ve worked in all the industries, including a long time in yours. We probably even overlapped or maybe worked together!
