I'm not sure if his cautionary tales are that discouraging. That said, I work at a company at which about half of us are yellow+ TopCoders, IOI finalists, ICPC

I'm not sure if his cautionary tales are that discouraging. That said, I work at a company at which about half of us are yellow+ TopCoders, IOI finalists, ICPC finalists, or something of that nature, so I'm surrounded by people who are very similar to his cautionary tales.