Arrogant smartasses often put more effort into having their genius recognized than they do in being correct, and that often... works. Loud and aggressive people

Arrogant smartasses often put more effort into having their genius recognized than they do in being correct, and that often... works. Loud and aggressive people take as much credit as they can and they make sure everyone knows, so they generally appear more competent than the rest. Sometimes they really are outstanding on their own (e.g. Linus Torvalds), but just as often, it turns out that yes, they are highly competent, but the true insights actually come from their underlings.