The reason that humans are able to function in a society that they don't fully understand is because of a process called abstraction. Abstraction is the ability to strip away details to gain a better understanding of the overall picture. For example, I can say that I do in fact understand how computers work: input devices send information to the processing unit; the processing unit gathers instructions and executes them; the output device then communicates the results of those calculations to the user.

Abstraction is the means by which we can function in an ever-changing environment. If you learn not to hit a tree while you're driving a car, you don't have to learn not to hit each individual tree on the planet (you did learn that, didn't you?). You can reduce the amount of complexity by stripping away unnecessary details. So what does any of this have to do with JavaScript? Well, sit back because I'm about to tell you.