Full Stack Disease

More and more young engineers call themselves full stack.

They write backend and frontend. They ship apps with React Native. With AI in the loop, maybe Swift and Kotlin too. Being able to write all of it is impressive. But the gap between "can write" and "can design" is a canyon.

Systems have balance. Products demand intentional tradeoffs shaped by context. A large-scale service that doesn't center on search might accept eventual consistency in exchange for cutting server costs to a tenth. That decision doesn't come from "can write." It comes from someone who understands the business and knows what to throw away.

Technical depth, macro and micro, is measured by the precision of tradeoffs drawn from business context. Not which technology you pick. Which technology you refuse. Old engineers have seen the real full-stack monsters. That's exactly where the pushback comes from.

Now that AI is commoditizing "can write" and "can build," the value of broad-and-shallow is falling fast. In an era when anyone can be full stack, merely writing code is no differentiator.

You probably don't want to hear this from me — someone still tangled in obligations and attachments I can't let go of.