> Almost all of these concepts could easily be learned in a few weeks by a talented engineer with strong fundamentals in software design and computer science.
The most important 67-80% of front-end work can probably be learned in a few weeks by an experienced engineer who already has a high level understanding of the web. The last 20-33% hides some things that are trickier to wrap your head around, along with more than a few WTFs, and a never-ending stream of subtle cross-browser differences.
It may still be plausible that a talented engineer with strong fundamentals in software design and cs could cover the ground quickly. But the message of the "don't call yourself a programmer" piece might be understood as being as much about how you're going to spend your time as it is how you're classified professionally (though those are certainly related): are you a stack-whisperer, or are you a badass problem solver with expertise in translating a problem domain into a formal-ish system which enables expands the capabilities of the human system (and networks of machines) it's embedded in?
My bet as someone who did years of front-end focus is that for all but the truest 10xers, if you focus on front-end and try to be thorough, your risk of being a stack-whisperer jumps dramatically because of how much of your time corner-case ephemeral arcana will chew up. Front-end is certainly not the only place in the industry where we've let that hazard run away with the lives and time of too many talented people, but it's a popular one.
The most important 67-80% of front-end work can probably be learned in a few weeks by an experienced engineer who already has a high level understanding of the web. The last 20-33% hides some things that are trickier to wrap your head around, along with more than a few WTFs, and a never-ending stream of subtle cross-browser differences.
It may still be plausible that a talented engineer with strong fundamentals in software design and cs could cover the ground quickly. But the message of the "don't call yourself a programmer" piece might be understood as being as much about how you're going to spend your time as it is how you're classified professionally (though those are certainly related): are you a stack-whisperer, or are you a badass problem solver with expertise in translating a problem domain into a formal-ish system which enables expands the capabilities of the human system (and networks of machines) it's embedded in?
My bet as someone who did years of front-end focus is that for all but the truest 10xers, if you focus on front-end and try to be thorough, your risk of being a stack-whisperer jumps dramatically because of how much of your time corner-case ephemeral arcana will chew up. Front-end is certainly not the only place in the industry where we've let that hazard run away with the lives and time of too many talented people, but it's a popular one.