I'm sure there are stupid people in every domain. It's not like everybody in Analytic is superbly smart.
But if all people do is just jumping around between programming languages and re-invent the same thing over and over again, they just hit their limit. They're probably a little bit better than the average developer. Or perhaps they just work harder and more passionate, not necessarily smarter.
I don't mean to denigrate people as I don't really care whether they are smart or not because I never really care of intellectual ranking. Personally, I only care if a person is a good person or not.
I'm merely replying that most web-developers hit their ceiling and probably not what the OP consider "smart". Please view smart or not smart as some sort of true/false without any insult related to it. Not as bad or good.
i would argue your point a different way. i think it is one of two things:
1) web development is where the jobs are, right now. below average and average developers will (or have to) follow the jobs and the money.
superior developers are already making top dollar and/or are already in a job they enjoy, so they don't really need to move. my company is hiring like crazy right now for web developers and we can't seem to find intelligent/qualified employees anywhere, though we know they're out there.
2) some jobs are just straight up difficult to do. and i don't just mean difficult as in "it takes intelligence to do this job". there are mentally "easier" jobs that some people just do not want to take because of the demands of the job. being smart perhaps makes them easier to do, and being so difficult these jobs tend to command higher salaries. so the smart people tend to filter into these positions.
that is typically why you'll see extremely smart people making a ton of money in niche industries, in my opinion.
in large industries, the smart people usually get promoted out of hands-on coding positions, or they're tougher to spot from the outside looking in because of various other reasons.
But if all people do is just jumping around between programming languages and re-invent the same thing over and over again, they just hit their limit. They're probably a little bit better than the average developer. Or perhaps they just work harder and more passionate, not necessarily smarter.
I don't mean to denigrate people as I don't really care whether they are smart or not because I never really care of intellectual ranking. Personally, I only care if a person is a good person or not.
I'm merely replying that most web-developers hit their ceiling and probably not what the OP consider "smart". Please view smart or not smart as some sort of true/false without any insult related to it. Not as bad or good.