Realistically the odds of gdb being a terrible programmer are very very slim. He has been in the field for at least a decade, published papers, given talks, was

Realistically the odds of gdb being a terrible programmer are very very slim. He has been in the field for at least a decade, published papers, given talks, was the CTO of stripe ( a company generally respected for having sick technical infrastructure). If he works an inordinate amount, then it's probably cause he loves it. I would guess he is much more likely to be world class than terrible