DHH – Programmers should stop celebrating incompetence (2021)

I don't think we celebrate incompetence. For me it's more about a reduction in expectations and standards driven by external factors.

If you want to place blame at someone's feet, I would point toward the managerial class that have encouraged the downskilling of talent in favor of having more control - if you only know how to do front end or back end, you need a team to build anything. Full stack developers don't necessarily have this problem, and are harder to slap around as they could leave and build on their own.

I've caught myself towing the party line regarding how only the most dedicated unicorn 10xers can achieve competence with both parts. I don't actually think this is true though. With a good mentor and proper environment you can make anyone full stack even if they have a normal home life.

This feels like a massive straw man.