Senior engineers are worms. Bow before the principal engineer.
Except that's not at all what the article is suggesting. Quite the opposite.
> it is literally effortless to accidentally cultivate the impression of being some kind of wizard
My impression of that bit was that the author was saying it may look like a senior engineer is a wizard, but actually it's just experience and it's not magic.
Exactly, but also that it's quite often experience you had this morning, not e.g. over the last 5 years, that makes the difference.
> just
A quote which shows you were wrong and the person you were responding to was right. You do know what is meant by "impression" in that sentence?