> Do you understand how your code gets translated down to C, assembly, machine code? How all that becomes electrical signals on a PCB? How the material properties work at the physical level and how its manufactured?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and not really but I would absolutely learn about it if I had any ability to control it. As it is, knowing more about material properties would not allow me to improve my programs, and I do not have a hardware foundry so it would not allow me to improve the hardware either. If I happened upon 1 trillion dollars or so, though, I would certainly invest time in learning all of the technical details of hardware manufacturing with the goal of creating a better hardware stack than the ones that we currently have available to us.
I didn't understand nearly as much from the start of my programming journey, of course. But as others mentioned, that was a weakness, not a strength. The lack of understanding bothered me, and I was able to learn all of the things that I did because I was continuously pushing myself to learn and understand more. If I had settled for never trying to understand, to just accept my current knowledge as the limits of my knowledge forevermore, then obviously I never would have been able to. Over months and years, I was able to continuously expand my knowledge little by little until eventually knowing a lot, rather than stagnating in the same place forever. There are still things I don't understand, of course, and my learning journey continues even today.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and not really but I would absolutely learn about it if I had any ability to control it. As it is, knowing more about material properties would not allow me to improve my programs, and I do not have a hardware foundry so it would not allow me to improve the hardware either. If I happened upon 1 trillion dollars or so, though, I would certainly invest time in learning all of the technical details of hardware manufacturing with the goal of creating a better hardware stack than the ones that we currently have available to us.
I didn't understand nearly as much from the start of my programming journey, of course. But as others mentioned, that was a weakness, not a strength. The lack of understanding bothered me, and I was able to learn all of the things that I did because I was continuously pushing myself to learn and understand more. If I had settled for never trying to understand, to just accept my current knowledge as the limits of my knowledge forevermore, then obviously I never would have been able to. Over months and years, I was able to continuously expand my knowledge little by little until eventually knowing a lot, rather than stagnating in the same place forever. There are still things I don't understand, of course, and my learning journey continues even today.