I think he's confusing "programmer" with "developer".

"Elite developers ... blah blah blah..."

May I suggest...

"Elite developers are elite because they're far more concerned with delivering results than caring how it's delivered."

Agreed.

Maybe he's also confusing "elite" with "elitist"?

lol

gills, thanks for providing more data that a hacker can be a cunning linguist.

Fairly sure he meant elitist.

I don't know, I've read Atwood for years and he pretty much thinks there are the 80% of developers that don't really care about computers, the 19% that do care, program for fun, and read computer books/blogs (he puts himself here), and 1% that are the elite wizards that create new languages, run the best OSS projects, drive new standards, etc. I don't think he's critical of these elite developers, just observing their nature.

Possibly - it just read more like the elitist types rather then the actual 1% elite (who are so rare you almost never know them).