[jaclaz]

There are IMHO two issues that you have to take into consideration:

#1 Most people will ONLY talk about their (possibly very few) successes and brilliant ideas and be very silent about the (possibly many) times they mde mistaks or spoke foolishly, etc. (so you have no real way to know the rate of good/bad ideas or products they generate).

#2 you are comparing yourself (single person) not only against a multitude of people, but to a "selected multitude" that believe (rightly or wrongly) to have had an idea worth being talked about.

Then, when/if you find some single person (like the Aleksey Kladov you mentioned) that you believe has an exceptional depth and breadth of knowledge in a given field, it is very possible that that person is simply exceptional.

I think we all have (even those like me that have not the capability to understand their work) some reverence towards scientists like (say) Einstein or Feynmam but ask yourself how many classes of 30 something people get a degree in physics at each university in the world each year (and very likely are all very good and smart professionals) you never heard of.