Observationally, I would say that there's little correlation between expertise and kit-optimization in our field, positive or negative.
The lesson here is to be careful with the signals you use as proxies for competence. "Has the perfect Visual Studio config", "has spoken at loads of conferences", and "visible on Hacker News"4 seem like strong signals, when the reality seems to be that they are weak ones, at best.
The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise
from marcbrooker@gmail.com (Marc Brooker)
