Pure anecdata. :) I know people who are one-of-a-few experts in technology that is critical to a particular industry, and there's not always good succession p

Pure anecdata. :) I know people who are one-of-a-few experts in technology that is critical to a particular industry, and there's not always good succession plans in place for when they retire. I could absolutely be wrong in this case - it might be well enough understood that you don't need decades of raw experience to begin to scratch the surface - but at the same time there really are so many advanced technologies held together by one or a few experts.