I pride myself on always improving.  I think most people feel a sense of accomplishment when they get better, faster and more efficient.

A close friend of mine raves about his co-workers and their level of intelligence (he uses the term genius).  He feels that he is sub-ordinate to some of their experience and knowledge in software design and architecture.  For him, I use the word “genius”.

In my work, I find myself reviewing designs or simply listening (eaves-dropping) to conversations about our software design and architecture.  Our entire system is one giant hack of the iBuySpy learning tool.  Many people jumped on the IBS bandwagen and released product with it.  It's easy and fast to implement and a great tool to learn some of the basic .Net techniques with.  The conversations and designs mentioned above have been declining in quality and expertise as new buzzwords are incorporated incorrectly.

It seems that many people pride themselves on learning buzzwords.  They read a few articles about something and then, rather than dig into the details and architecture of the examples provided, they write their own interpretation of the models and patterns.  Inevitably, these turn into more hacks. 

On the other hand, the hacks of the patterns provide a moderate improvement over what came before.  Improvement is good, even if it is hardly conceivable. 

Perhaps a lightning strike will snap someone into action and help bring people around, cause them to think more holistically and possibly, though as umlikely as the lightning strike, drop their inflated egos to sit back and learn from other's research and dedication to quality.  It is ego, after all, that prevents people who have the capacity for greatness, to choose bullshit instead.

I would love to work with people whose skills and expertise matched or surpased their egos.  I would love to be sub-ordinate to a peer's knowledge and talents. It would be like basking in the sun on a hot summer's day.