Frameworks are the enemies of knowledge, but, they do accomplish the purpose of knowledge. Frameworks require knowledge of their own, they create a virtual space ruled by them. People, most of the time, are unaware of the underlying space. Problems and solutions are communicated in reference to, and expressed in terms of the framework. A web framework for example. People don’t care about packets, headers and protocols. Any progress in the protocol realm is ingested in the frameworks. If one framework fails to adapt, another framework appears. People are then sure never to leave the land of frameworks.
Due to the growing complexities of the software world, frameworks hold a certain legitimacy. If you need to deliver something, frameworks help you reduce delivery time.
This said, since frameworks are required by jobs, most of the time developers don’t care about what’s going on beneath the hood. This over time erodes skills and creates a world where people no longer know how the world works. Bright people are those who dare understand and spin another take at problems or derive optimizations.
Curiosity and experiments are two major motivations to keep learning. We should actively learn even if we don’t see the need for it, because this creates a pool of ideas and broaden insights which can be used to tackle problems and artfully carve programs.
This is why contributing to OpenSource provides a constant stream of serious, meaningful, and breath-taking side-learning.