On top of that, Carmack was essentially the singular engineer on his projects. Most others were concerned with making levels, assets, music, etc. There were ot

On top of that, Carmack was essentially the singular engineer on his projects. Most others were concerned with making levels, assets, music, etc. There were others (sorry Abrash and Cash) in the codebase but it was largely John. Which means his bus factor was insanely high. He was the definition of a silo of knowledge. He also used this to his advantage, knowing the company could not replace him. Most projects of a certain size cannot and do not want that dynamic. It is not a healthy dynamic once there’s some number of people working in close proximity.