[sirfz]

That doesn't cover OP's point, some people's brains just work differently and they can achieve something in 1000x less time than others. You can have all the time in the world and you'll never reach their level. That's essentially what talent is.

[attractivechaos]

I have been thinking what talent means in programming and thought of a case in the past. The task was to parse a text file format. One programmer used ~1000 lines of code (LOC) with complex logic. The other used <200 LOC with a straightforward solution that ran times faster and would probably be more extensible and easier to maintain in future. This is a small task. The difference will be exponentially amplified for complex projects that Fabrice is famous for. The first programmer in my story may be able to write a javascript runtime if he has time + obsession, but it will take him much longer and the quality will be much lower in comparison to quickjs or mqjs.