Well, I am a professional in both, and it's not at all BS. Yes, it's possible to dabble in both, but if we're talking expert levels here, then guys that are experts in both the programming and sysadmin fields are really, really rare. (I'm not an expert in either field. I'm just barely good enough to do it professionally.)

Respectfully, I think that once you start dealing with some more interesting problems, and doing so professionally, you might begin to realize just how much you don't know in one field or another.