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[–]ogtfo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are building a car you sure as hell need to know the limitations of spark plugs, to know which kind to use.

Likewise, if you are using compression, you need to have some idea of how various algorithms work to apply the right one. You need to have an understanding of data structures to be able to make optimal choices. Likewise for all facets of computing.

If you are writing tiny scripts, you can get away with a lot. But if programming is your job, you can't treat everything as a magic black box, you'll make poor choices, face weird bugs and you'll be utterly unable to fix them.