> i've never met anyone deterred by "brilliant" or "ninja" or "10x" or etc.

I'm deterred from such job ads. But in fact you're right, it's not because of what I wrote above. Instead, it's because I've found a high correlation between those job ad keywords and dev work doing nothing but CRUD apps under the micromanaging eye of dysfunctional management.

But I tried to explain that in a more rational, diplomatic way, rather than just assume his company sucks.