[moonchrome]

I hate the term rock star dev because it brings up an image of a node.js guy using MongoDB as an ACID data store and writing his own unknownium.js or something like that - if the rest of your team is impressed by that - you're in deep shit anyway.

But I've noticed that in IT/programming people recognize and respect each other on skill and also form "respect based hierarchy" implicitly more than usual. Not suggesting that IT/programming is utopian meritocracy or anything just that from my impressions it's much more meritocratic than other professions I've worked in/by (print, news editing, management) - so it's more likely you get positive results with such open structure.

[hodwik]

At my company the "rock star devs" are the probably-autistic guys who knows the answer to everyone's archaic legacy and interoperability questions, are the only guys who actually know assembly, catch the subtle mistakes at code review long before anyone else sees them coming, force us to move technologies when it is absolutely necessary and no sooner, and their code makes up roughly half of the code-base.

What's more, they are complete assholes. And yet, everyone under them respects them and marches to their drumbeat. Their teams get real work done.

If someone thinks there is a better leader than that I'm not sure who the hell they're talking about.

[m_fayer]

I've met (only a few) devs who are as you describe, but instead of socially incompetent assholes they were committed to humility, cooperation, and professionalism in the best sense of the word. They were better leaders than what you describe.

I actually don't get where this stereotype that the best in our field are inevitably jerks comes from. If you're smart enough to rise to the top engineering-wise, you're probably also smart enough to realize that ours is a collaborative field, no one is right 100% of the time, and that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.