You're asking a community full of people who consider themselves to be "top" developers whether there's room for criticism of top developers. Even if your obser

You're asking a community full of people who consider themselves to be "top" developers whether there's room for criticism of top developers. Even if your observations were right (and I have no idea if they are or not), that's not likely to be a very productive conversation. Don't focus so much on competing with other people. If you want to succeed, then keep improving your own skills and approach. It doesn't necessarily need to be the same skills and approach as other people, it just needs to work for you. If taking the time to study or read books and develop sharp expertise in particular technologies is important to you, then keep doing that. Someone, somewhere, will need your skills, and then you'll be the guy that knows X better than anybody else. Think of it like dating, yeah? You look around and think, "wow, everyone likes guys with hair gel, I guess I need to use hair gel too", but it's a big world, and there are lots of people that think hair gel is gross. Maybe instead you practice having a great smile or being friendly, and that gets you happiness instead of hair gel. Maybe you've hit real lows because you've been comparing what you do to what other people do and then deciding that what you do sucks because they get attention and you don't, so to defend what you want to do you're trying to convince yourself that what they do actually sucks. But none of that actually matters. It doesn't get you any closer to happiness. Just do your thing and do it well.