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Don't forget that John Carmack is arguably a programming genius, 3-4 standard deviations above average. Most of us can't maintain the same amount/depth of mental maps as he can, so we need tools to help us

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On top of that, Carmack was essentially the singular engineer on his projects. Most others were concerned with making levels, assets, music, etc. There were others (sorry Abrash and Cash) in the codebase but it was largely John. Which means his bus factor was insanely high. He was the definition of a silo of knowledge. He also used this to his advantage, knowing the company could not replace him. Most projects of a certain size cannot and do not want that dynamic. It is not a healthy dynamic once there’s some number of people working in close proximity.

I'd say most of us do not have this kind of focus. He actually has two focuses: strategic focus and tactical focus. Strategic focus means that he devotes a good part of his life into building a virtual world and concentrates on rendering algorithms. Tactical focus means that he can work 10+ hours daily for every day for a large part of his life.

Most of us would be lucky to get a quarter of those two focuses.

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