The question is meant in a different vein. This article http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/... suggests that people that become "great" practice deliberately over a long period of time.

Measuring how much better you're becoming is easier in some practices than in others. Assuming everybody wants to become great hackers, how can you practice deliberately such that you reach this "greatness?" Without some way of measuring how good you're becoming this is pretty difficult to do.