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Full stack? I'm calling B.S.

Sure, “full stack” might’ve made sense 15 years ago. It was a way to hire someone who could do everything. But that’s the thing, trying to continue doing everything in the tech world might as well be trying to have a pulse on all matter in the big bang. It simply isn’t possible to expand in every direction.

It’s like saying, “Oh shit, what if the server admin could also write software and also manage the databases?”

The problem is that now there are ~10 front end frameworks that are ridiculously specialized, about as many different database solutions, and more programming languages and pro/cons/isms and techniques to each that if you’re a full stack engineer and you don’t expand your skills every six months to a year, you will get left behind.

Full stack and trying to hang on to an old paradigm doesn’t work anymore. Everything is too specialized. It’s best to become a specialist along with it.

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َQuick Bites

• What’s your take on the PaaS vs. Internal Developer Platform (IDP) debate? IMO, it all depends on context. If you’re a large-scale enterprise with a brownfield setup, building an IDP is necessary to properly integrate legacy systems and maintain necessary flexibility. But if you’re a small startup, a PaaS is probably sufficient.

• Should we be shifting left or shifting down? This article hits the nail on the head: “Optimization begins with reducing the cognitive load on developers, and removing unnecessary obligations that distract them from innovating.”
• For those of y’all in DevRel, this article by Daniel Bryant is a fantastic read.

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And that’s a wrap on this week! As always, this newsletter is a community project. So if you have anything awesome to share from the cloud-native world, send it our way.

Stay crunchy 🥐

Luca

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