If the world is constructed for one level of person and the interfaces are for a given bandwidth, someone who operates two orders of magnitude above the norm will always feel stuck.
I am very fortunate that I get to research new technologies every few months and then construct a working system out of them while hiring some smart and hard working people. I get to work in the seam between business development and our development team.
One flaw in how my workplace is constructed is that the current HR process would screen out most of our star performers hired at a time when no one screened resumes. Our current crop of new hires are an unimaginative bunch and rather boring. Our older hires have eclectic pasts and are also quicker on their feet - and most did not have degrees or significant work experience when we hired them. We would not succeed today if we started out with the screening process we have now. As a firm, the policies value coformity to a norm over performance and achievement. We are not developing our farm team.
IMHO, if we administered IQ and emotional maturity tests to people and took the top 10% no matter what their degree status or knowledge base, we'd be an order of magnitude ahead. I was once at a startup that did this and we took some fresh college grads who were first-chairs - and they became phenomenal developers in six months - they could read and learn by reading, they had phenomenal concentration, great work ethic, could take criticism, and they were fun to be around.
