I don't actually think this is as much of a false dichotomy as you believe. In my experience that separation between physical ability and smarts has always exi

I don't actually think this is as much of a false dichotomy as you believe. In my experience that separation between physical ability and smarts has always existed on some level. Yes of course there are engineers who work out, and soccer players who code, but I've generally seen that the best engineers do not work out much, and the best soccer players do not code much. Some of that may in fact just come down to time and how much they're spending it on their craft. At the end of the day though, the very brightest and most talented software devs I know are simply out of shape.