> Many people deride “full stack developers” as “jack of all trades, master of none”.
Because they forget the second part: "jack of all trades, master of none, is often-times better than master of one."
As someone with a huge passion for learning new things, I find remaining a generalist brings the most value to a company (as a contractor), as you're hired to deal with problem A, but if you can also help with problem B and aren't afraid of learning to fix problem C as well, you're worth your weight in gold.
Specialization is for insects, and engineers without ADHD.
Yeah, the Heinlein quote is pretty awful anywhere, and definitely not relevant here, given its original context.
Even a generalist full-stack developer (which I, too, am) is still specialized to tech work. Heinlein's "real man" is effectively impossible in the modern world, and reeks of a particular kind of "rugged individualist" prejudice.
> Specialization is for insects, and engineers without ADHD.
Specialization is not just for insects if you want to do things like go to the moon or formulate a polio vaccine. It is the unfortunate nature of tough problems that they require a very deep, nuanced understanding to solve.
Because they forget the second part: "jack of all trades, master of none, is often-times better than master of one."
As someone with a huge passion for learning new things, I find remaining a generalist brings the most value to a company (as a contractor), as you're hired to deal with problem A, but if you can also help with problem B and aren't afraid of learning to fix problem C as well, you're worth your weight in gold.
Specialization is for insects, and engineers without ADHD.