to be fair: It's both. You need knowledge and smarts. If you know everything but you don't know how to apply anything to new problems, you're screwed. If you're

to be fair: It's both. You need knowledge and smarts. If you know everything but you don't know how to apply anything to new problems, you're screwed. If you're a genius but you know nothing about computers, you're effectively incompetent at that point, and it'll take you a while to learn everything you need to know to solve the problem.