Why do you use words like “brutal” and “cruel”? We celebrate those paragons - that’s why we have the Olympics. “Cruel” only makes sense in the limited scope context of single competitions.
And we should also celebrate hyper-effective programmers when we encounter them. There’s plenty of work to go around; they’re not taking jobs from others.
Have you watched Amadeus (the film). I like that movie for its exploration of the psychology of dedication being confronted by genius.
As outsiders of the sports, it is great to celebrate the GOATs like Feds Nadal and Djoko but a cursory google reveals that to reliably break even in the sport, you need to be inside the top 250 in the world.
To be 250th in the world at something like tennis takes a lifetime of graft and a tonne of talent, and yet the rift between 1st and 250th is still huge - you can often see #1 go extended periods without dropping a set and getting 6-0s which is a cruel reflection of the nature of the power law: you might be 1 in 100million but 1 in a billion talent completely wrecks you
EDIT reread your comment - totally agree with you regarding software vs individual competition.
And we should also celebrate hyper-effective programmers when we encounter them. There’s plenty of work to go around; they’re not taking jobs from others.