The problem with this notion - as mentioned by a few people in the article's comments - is that it is difficult to find developers with a high level of expertise for both sides of the fence. Is it worth the extra expenditure of time in the hiring process to look for two people who are good in both realms? Or is it better to spend less time looking for one front-end expert (with passable server skills) and one server-side expert (with passable client skills)? My experience interviewing/hiring suggests the latter.
I will concede the obvious: if you find someone who is great on both sides, HIRE THEM. If you are lucky enough to hire that person, don't pigeon hole them.
You can also just hire someone who's smart and willing to learn. I mean web development isn't that hard. I know everyone wants to hire someone who meets every single one of their many requirements (we've all seen the job ads), but realistically how long is it going to take a smart developer to pickup say Javascript + whatever APIs you're using? A few weeks? You could easily spend months trying to find the perfect hire.
It's not that hard compared to other skills. Anyway web development includes a lot of stuff, and you can really go low level if you have to implement algorithms and address scalability.
> If you are lucky enough to hire that person, don't pigeon hole them.
I was thinking the same thing after reading "You’d be much better off getting one of your kickass API developers to spend a little time on the website portion, which would free salary space to hire another kickass API developer.".
My immediate thought is that you'd now have a front end developer. Unfortunately, it is your former API developer turned reluctant front-end designer, who is likely annoyed that his job description changed midstream.
I will concede the obvious: if you find someone who is great on both sides, HIRE THEM. If you are lucky enough to hire that person, don't pigeon hole them.