Although I’ll focus mainly on software engineers in this post, what I’m saying applies just as much to data scientists, data engineers, QA, DevOps, and honestly anyone working in tech.
While talking with fresh or junior engineers, I’ve noticed something: many topics I encountered during my learning journey are now often seen as “unnecessary for work.” Things like how the internet works, how data flows through systems, or how computers handle memory — they’re often brushed off as irrelevant or “too low-level.”
Perhaps you don’t need them in your daily tasks for now. But that doesn't mean they won’t be useful later.
For example, I’ve had conversations where I mention (in very abstract terms) how browsers work, only to realize the other person doesn't know how data even travels over the internet. Or when I bring up data storage or database internals and hear something like: "I’m a full-stack developer" or "I'm doing ML models — this is outside my scope."
But the truth is: understanding these things — even at a high level — makes you better at what you do. Whether you're debugging, optimizing, scaling, or building something new, having that foundational context helps.
You don’t need to dive deep into every topic. But knowing just enough about what's behind the scenes helps you make smarter decisions. A QA engineer who understands backend behavior can write better test strategies. A data scientist who knows how pipelines are built can spot issues earlier. A software engineer who understands how memory works will write more efficient code.
Think of it like this: doctors study the entire human body before they specialize, not because they’ll use all of it every day, but because it helps them see the full picture.
The same goes here.
So if you're early in your career — don’t dismiss things as “off-topic” too quickly. The things you skip today might be the exact things you need a few years down the line.
Knowledge compounds — and it always pays off.
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