I know a number of "secret experts" -- one of which has been a good friend of mine for more than 20 years. He is an expert you have never heard of, but you have interacted with his efforts in everything from VoIP, streaming, ads, all sorts of stuff...
He is a cowboy from texas with a stereotypical texas accent, looks like he works at a gas station, but can look at a PCB, take the labels of the chips on the board and the layout, and actually write linux drivers for said board. (HE ACTUALLY DID THIS) - but he will regularly tell me "goin hog huntin" in the most deadpan texas drawl... and this week was "went deep sea fishin. back in dallas."
I am really lucky to be on a firstname call any time basis with this guy.
Although it's not a popular term, he truly is a super architect and 10 x coder. You can throw any problem at him and he'll solve it, fast and with quality. As part of this, he explores new technologies and seems to master them in hours or days at most, and it all looks so effortless. Even more rare for such a powerhouse of tech skill, he's no nerd. An excellent communicator with deep business insight.
I often wonder about him, if you can do all that...if you can manage such absurd scope and complexity in your mind whilst it seems you're not even breaking a sweat...doesn't that mean you can do anything? Anything at all?
Anyway, his online exposure: he has an email address, but don't expect a response. He has a smartphone but I never see him use it. He has no social media.
If he would post online, he'd inevitably be recognized as a guru. But he won't, he goes home to his family. Not just smart, also wise.
i grew up in the south but lived on the east and west coasts as an adult. my experience is that intelligence and aptitude are more evenly distributed than insecure city slickers would love to believe. there are homeless people in LA who can rejigger electric scooters for free rides in 2 minutes flat, and they didn't watch youtube to figure it out.
He is a cowboy from texas with a stereotypical texas accent, looks like he works at a gas station, but can look at a PCB, take the labels of the chips on the board and the layout, and actually write linux drivers for said board. (HE ACTUALLY DID THIS) - but he will regularly tell me "goin hog huntin" in the most deadpan texas drawl... and this week was "went deep sea fishin. back in dallas."
I am really lucky to be on a firstname call any time basis with this guy.
There are TONs of them.