I've written compilers, and editors
I know several assemblers
I've designed and repaired TTL/CMOS based circuits
I've done NAND to Tetris
I know digital and analog electronics
I know how tubes and transistors work
I've fixed atomic clocks
There wasn't a layer I couldn't troubleshoot or understand. Things were much simpler back then.
Yes, yes, you’re the exception, the modern reneissance man. r/iamverysmart.
But could you do what the fictional engineer in The Mysterious Island did, to start from mining, smelting, drilling, making chemicals to create a whole level of technology from scratch? There’s also creating civilization; i.e. the social and legal constructions which guide and powers us as a group; most of us have a vague notion, but how many of us could create a system of law and government from nothing? There is almost an infinite stack to know. Anyone claiming to know “all the layers” is simply blind to all the layers they themselves take for granted.
