Moving up abstraction layers really only succeeds with a solid working knowledge of the lower layers. Otherwise, you're just flying blind, operating on faith. A common source of bugs is precisely a result of developers failing to understand the limits of the abstractions they are using.
I'm not sure whether I agree with GP, but I think you may be misinterpreting their point. I can have an understanding of CPUs in general without knowing individual instructions, and I do think knowing about things like CPU cache is useful even when writing e.g. Python.
Sure, but the comment being worried about a lack of “flexing your muscles” is perfectly countered by moving up an abstraction layer then, as you don’t have to constantly get into the weeds of coding to maintain an understanding _in general_ without knowing individual instructions.
Goes to the larger idea that strategic and logic is important for scalability and long term success. Not just execution. Something LLMs miss often (mostly because people fail to communicate it to them).
