Its interesting, I know one Cambridge theoretical physicist who is immensely successful in his field. I found it really odd how he worked 5 years as a proffesional writer between working in university. He thinks of good writing as his "secret weapon" that made him successful in academia. He is one of the most well spoken person I have met and has instilled new respect for being a good writer which I didn't think about before ( I like the HN crowd think programming is everything ).

Its also interesting that pg is such an accomplished writer. I think programmers need to think about code and well written document as having the same importance.

Just my two thoughts.