One of my guys is an engineering rock star. He can pick up any language given a week or two to sit down with it.
bollocks.
two weeks into a *new* language you are still programming modula in that language. i'm not saying this is always useless, but that's not a rock star, it will always be poor quality code.
On top of that he is an excellent systems administrator, DBA, networking guy and project manager. Retention is a constant challenge
more spectacular bollocks demonstrating that he just happens to be the guy you feel comfortable with and he managed to make himself appear indispensable. and that just unfolds how industry (specially corporate industry) works: a bunch people covering each other's asses. which is also fine but ... oh, this constant bollocks to reinforce the farce, gets on one's nerves ...
this also pretty well explains another discussion proposed in this thread: how the asshole infestations actually work. if you hire an asshole it is relatively easy to get rid of him once you spot him. but once you have an asshole in a sufficiently high management position, given enough time you are guarranteed to end up with a stable system full of assholes. new hires which aren't assholes will leave in weeks/months and you will have high rotation at the base, but assholes will stick around and since your ass is covered you will feel fine.