Not really. Learned skill and natural ability are not mutually exclusive. Being a great developer still means you have to learn a lot of things. Consider someone with a mere 1% better &quot;natural&quot; ability to write code but never had the chance to develop it into a viable &quot;learned&quot; ability versus someone who was merely &quot;average&quot; but had the wealth to develop the skill, the latter will get the job in a &quot;meritocracy&quot;. So you&#x27;re selecting for wealth mostly.