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I Started Programming When I Was 7. I'm 50 Now and the Thing I Loved Has Changed
(www.jamesdrandall.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Programming
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OK, but that doesn't really answer my question, and I'm getting the sense you don't know how deeply some engineers understand how the hardware works. Plenty of embedded programmers have EE degrees, and can write VHDL just as well (or just as badly) as they can write C and ASM.
To answer your question: no, I don't think that. I know there are some areas of computing where having a deep understanding of the entire system is critical, like embedded systems. I mean, that necessity of deep understanding doesn't have to apply to every domain of computing, and creating abstractions is a useful way of dividing the work so we can make more complicated systems than one person could if they needed to understand every part.
A "EE" degree won't get you into poking the right things into memory using BASIC. How about your "EE" programmers try that understanding of hardware?
BASIC? That's cute.
If you don't think EE students learn how circuits (including ICs) work, what exactly do you think they're doing while they're in school?