Yes, that's what I was saying is unlikely to happen, not impossible, certainly. The top players are generally recognized as people to be supported, put on high

Yes, that's what I was saying is unlikely to happen, not impossible, certainly. The top players are generally recognized as people to be supported, put on high-value projects, and kept happy. The comment says the opposite happens, which is that the top engineers are not put in a position from which they can do the best work, but in one from which their productivity declines, the high-impact project is not done or deployed, until eventually the top engineer leaves the company, for, presumably--since why one company should be different from another?--another company where they will find the same frustratingly poor use of their talents. One of the problems I see is that many people see themselves as high-level engineers (or athletes, or professionals), but are not seen as such by others. In some cases, others are "dumb"--we have all been there--but in other instances management, which is not made up of all "dumb" professionals, may not see the talent that the alleged top engineers think they possess.