Isn't this architecture redundant? Why have two application servers in between the database and the browser? Wouldn't it be better to serve the page once and have the browser communicate directly with the api? Is this setup common? Is it really the future?
From the other end of the spectrum there are a lot of backend engineers who don't want to touch the frontend.
IMHO aside from javascript, there's a huge tedious side to frontend engineering involving html, css, browser incompatibility and ugly hacks that aren't really programming in a sense (more just endless debugging). It's all very domain specific knowledge that doesn't translate well onto other facets of of traditional programming. Hence a lot of backend devs want to stay away from that so they build a wall of separation between the people who do want to deal with it and the ones who don't: "Frontend" and "Backend" engineers.
Not to mention she uses git, which is not a trivial tool. I don't see many total beginners adopting it. A beginner usually just wants to learn how to develop before diving in and learning the complexities of version control.
I disagree with your philosophy. You advocate a lifestyle focusing on success and ambition. I believe that having the qualities of both types of people is ideal.
Below is a quote that I found very illustrative of the downfalls of living a life too focused on success:
“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”