[fable]

It's been my experience (for what little it's worth) that good programmers usually are intelligent, in the sense of people capable of quickly picking up and evaluating concepts. Combined with a certain lack of social skills, perhaps this leads to a sense of being "above the contemptuous crowds." Give success to somebody like this, and one possibility is that they suddenly figure they've proven their innate superiority for all time, and may now pontificate to the rest of us.

I was surprised to discover a number of years ago that this fit Sid Meier perfectly. Very quiet, bland, and reserved in general (and his mother made the *best* chocolate chip cookies) while working at Microrprose, as soon as he got recognized as "the Sid Meier" (tm) he began punctuating his conversation with weird little statements about how he knew exactly what people wanted in games, how they thought in general, and how they would act at all times. It was disconcerting watching this...creature emerge from the quiet but seemingly friendly guy I'd met several times over a decade.

Perhaps this is what we see from others in the field, too, especially when they reinforce this attitude as a group. Quick apprehension and a need to establish one's own sense of self-worth, becomes a boastful "I know best, look at me" thing. Nothing fails like success.