In my journey as a programmer I discovered that sometimes people who told me my ideas sucked turned out to be wrong, and many of the folks who leaned on superior background were stagnant and became institutionalized in a way that is similar to a professor who relies on tenure for credibility. There are a lot of false idols to be worshipped in programming if you are looking for someone else to tell you what to do.

The elitism isn't shocking anymore, but it is sad and limiting. I want to hang out with / work with a programmer like this as much as I want to hang out with a religious zealot. Which is to say not at all.