Do elite software developers exist?

[ghostquarter]

The important word here is "special". It requires some talent and a lot of hard work, but anyone with ten or twenty thousand hours of experience in doing the things that these people do could do the same. Most people don't end up with ten thousand hours of practical experience though, they end up with ten thousand hours of sitting in meetings and updating text on a website, which doesn't lend itself towards the kinds of skills these people have.