I like your point on complexity; from that statement alone I am far from it yet. The layers of abstraction which I have had to deal with so far can be said to be merely surface-level. This is a goal I'm still trying to consciously work on as well (being able to handle complex projects). I guess for someone who is a newbie like myself I may be jumping the gun too early by finding myself veering towards systems which I may not understand e.g. operating systems, compilers.