[smt88]

I'd argue that a lot of his success was directly related to not knowing anything about SQL/RDBMS because they were not required by his specialty.

Instead of spending time learning SQL, which he'd never use while creating a game, he only learned and practiced the skills he used for games. It's incidental that a lot of those skills are fairly universal and low-level, which gives us the false impression that Carmack is a generalist.