I've personally known a very famous professor I won't name. I met him back in 2010. He was already successful, but friendly. He's since become 50x more famous a

I've personally known a very famous professor I won't name. I met him back in 2010. He was already successful, but friendly. He's since become 50x more famous and more successful, and I honestly feel like his ego has inflated to match that. He's now more abrasive, interrupts people more, is more dismissive of other people's ideas. He's trying to be everywhere at once to maintain his success, filling his days with meetings and talks, from 8AM to 6PM, but failing to keep up IMO (because nobody can do everything and succeed, you have to choose some things and stay focused). In contrast, I've met other very successful profs from other universities. Had a meeting with someone who is probably the top guy in his field. I felt like a total impostor, but he listened to everything I had to say, was kind and patient, showed genuine interest. I was really impressed. There really are highly successful people who are not assholes.. And IMO, the successful-but-kind prof is still publishing a lot of genuinely innovative papers, maybe because he's open to learning from others around him. Whereas the successful-but-arrogant guy who's trying to be everywhere has become out of touch and is coasting on his existing fame, but not contributing much anymore.