It's an epidemic.
Go to school to learn all this data structures and do these fancy whiteboard tests at Microsoft.
Your day-to-day? Meetings. Maintaining some tiny element of code.
Even scientists. The schooling they have is sophisticated. Really intricate thoughts. Then they're just using lab equipment. Paperwork. Convention.
They're not on the cusp of single-handedly unlocking unsolved mysteries in physics. Their whole role as a spoke in the wheel depends on using bullshit to obfuscate 90% of the trade could be done by technicians.
Don't be fooled. Everybody is a cog in the system, and until they've actually shown bona fides they've invented something practical themselves, there's no reason to assume that stranger is as brilliant as they make themselves out to be.