Although I agree with your general point (which is why I was such a fan of Meteor), in my opinion it's kind of a fallacy to compare jQuery, which is a DOM manipulation library, to UI libraries like React or state management libraries like Redux, which together give you solid patterns and debug tools to build entire apps.

I think this piece is a good counterpoint to the original article.

ES6 is better, faster, and doesn't have much bloat when compiled with Babel. It's a huge learning curve, yeah, but once you get over the hump building something with React, Vue, or whatever else is so much faster than the older libraries.

Depends on what you want to do. If you're just adding a carousel or parallax scrolling to a product site or blog, jQuery is probably fine. If you're building a web application that you'll have to maintain for years, jQuery will quickly become a miserable tangled mess.

Agreed. this fully justified my feelings over the past year trying to learn to code.

That will be the follow-up article. But IMO no if you really want to concentrate on your craft. No one can be a unicorn. Yes if you want to add another skill set and be more marketable. But no if employers think they can just lump another job skill set on us and charge for the same damn salary. I'd say learn to understand the code and know how to design within the restraints of the technologies. Put yourself out there so you can read and talk code rather than write production code.

I started out as a designer, then became an engineer, and now I'm not really sure what I am anymore. I enjoy it all. Don't listen to people telling you what and what not to learn—just learn what you need to create what you want to create :)

I personally think that interaction designers should at least know how it all works, but I find that the answer comes down to the places that you want to work, the type of work you want to do, and what your goals are in your work/career.

My experience is that hybrid designers start out designers and are encouraged to be engineers because there is a greater demand for the engineering work. That makes keeping balance as a hybrid designer very difficult, and to be honest, I think that there are only a few environments where a hybrid designer can prosper, mostly at smaller technology companies. Otherwise, a hybrid designer is often prized more for their 'design eye' rather than their design skill.

That being said, being a hybrid designer opens more career opportunities, is considered a set up for hiring prospects, and really opens up your abilities to create personal projects solo. If you desire independence outside of a normal career path, then I think being a hybrid will help aid in that desire, both in your ability to land work, and your ability to create your own ventures. Save for that, if your desire is to work in an agency or a large company, you will rarely be tasked with development work.