You're talking about crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is also a real thing: "the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge." Obviously that's important for programming.

A related concept is "general intelligence," which behavioral genetic research has shown to be highly heritable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intellig...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_factor_%28psychometrics%29