I feel like we are discussing this from very different perspectives. You raise hard computer science problems and a Woz example that is hardware related. The article was about software, not people who push the envelope of what is possible with computers.
If you are tackling problems like natural language recognition you don't need a superstar programmer. You need someone with a background in Computational linguistics.
Assuming we are discussing software. Hard computer science problems are, unfortunately, very infrequently brought up in a business setting. The biggest challenge in software is building the right thing. Change is inevitable and solutions are often large. This means you need to have teams of people working together building solutions that are very malleable.
Here is another way to consider it from my perspective. The article is about teams of 'A' players. I am guessing Linus meets your criteria, but you don't hire Linus. You don't have teams of Linus'. Linus is something else...
If you are tackling problems like natural language recognition you don't need a superstar programmer. You need someone with a background in Computational linguistics.
Assuming we are discussing software. Hard computer science problems are, unfortunately, very infrequently brought up in a business setting. The biggest challenge in software is building the right thing. Change is inevitable and solutions are often large. This means you need to have teams of people working together building solutions that are very malleable.
Here is another way to consider it from my perspective. The article is about teams of 'A' players. I am guessing Linus meets your criteria, but you don't hire Linus. You don't have teams of Linus'. Linus is something else...