In my humble opinion, younger engineers are not well served by the notion that compilers, operating systems, network stacks and low level code are “solved” problems.<p>I’d argue this from two angles. First, are people still complaining about problems with operating systems and languages? Second, is innovation still occurring? I’d argue that the answer to both questions is a resounding yes.<p>Even in something as simple as network stacks, the relatively recent explosion of mobile devices and the IOT has driven change. How about low level languages? Rust has just shown up on the scene showing that low level programming wasn’t “solved” by C/C++. And I think we can all still think of big problems with our favorite operating system.<p>Last, consider a far older technology - the automobile. Are exciting things still happening with cars? Sure, innovation has greatly slowed down, but the electric car has the promise of reinventing the entire industry - and that’s innovating the most fundamental mechanical components like the drive train and energy source.<p>I think computing technology, being way younger than the automobile, still has room for big improvements at all levels of the stack.