>People who drove themselves crazy working as hard as they could in school generally didn't get anywhere in the real world.

I think these are the people the author is referencing. These students did amazing if measuring by GPA, but did so through hard work and a lot of thinking. Got praised for GPA related achievements which reinforced their over studying/thinking behavior, which leads to the scenarios the author describes.

The most successful people you talk about likely wouldn't have the issues the article addresses.