This isn't really true. Most great developers I know have interest and experience up and down the stack though not expertise in all parts.

Often, those that stay specialized in one layer of the stack are less helpful because they don't see the forest for the trees.

There's an analogy of specialization causing extinction somewhere in here, too...

True. But a jack of all trades with powerful tools may get to market sooner than a large group of specialists who can't see the forest through the trees.

I've seen people promote themselves as full-stack engineers who literally just spent three months studying Ruby on Rails and some JavaScript and don't actually know any true front-end development or back-end development.

I've found that people who might actually qualify for the title (and they do exist) generally don't use it to describe themselves.

It's all relative but I think a lot of us have the problem of puffing ourselves up whilst knocking others down.

I'm multifaceted but folks just assume I'm hiding weakness.

Also, at least in London, full-stack pays a lot less than devops.

His point remains though, a single person can have a broad enough skillset to achieve a lot today and we're still getting more efficient.

I'm no genius. But when I say I'm a full stack engineer. It means I can create all parts of a technical product from design, mockup, mobile programming, web dev, backend programming, devops, scaling, payment systems, api integrations etc.

Edit: A lot of devs are the same. I know at least 10 without giving it too much thought.

But what will replace the ninjas and the rock stars?

pirates and zombies.

But your suggestion still reads fine! Let's insert it:

> Today’s "less than mediocre at a lot of different things" engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether.

The OP's point still stands! So I don't see what you're on about :-P

You haven't met anyone who can work at all levels of the stack, then. There are engineers with a good grasp of the fundamentals, and know how to apply it across the board.