It is possible though to build your own stack from the ground up (hard part is to be smart about what exactly "the ground" is). Look at Knuth and TeX. And today we have even better tools to write programs, and much better turn around times in terms of compiling etc. Obviously, there is some added complexity for there are API's like Apple Metal you will need to learn, but I think that more than evens out in total.

I think it is important to have a big goal though (like TeX) to keep you motivated and moving forward.