True. And not. Continuing with the sports analogy I think the comparison of sprinters and marathon runners is an apt one. It's been found (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/Mu...) that sprinters have a muscle metabolism that is much more anaerobic than normal from birth (you never exhale during a 100m dash), so good sprinters are pretty much born rather than made. On the other hand, although good genes do help (why are marathon winners generally from Africa?) you can train your muscles to have more efficient aerobic metabolism and be a top-notch marathoner.
So Gates is right in that top talent is probably born, there's nothing you can do to attain that level (which is true for most things, btw). But you can become a damn good programmer by practice.
So Gates is right in that top talent is probably born, there's nothing you can do to attain that level (which is true for most things, btw). But you can become a damn good programmer by practice.