And all you need to be an olympic runner is a pair of shoes and some clothes.
The tech industry, like many other industries, uses simple filters (such as work experience or a college degree) to pick the number of people they have time to interview. The skills required to be a talented programmer, and the skills required to get and keep a job (or earn a living programming without a job) are not equivalent.
Right you are, and the metaphore is brilliant. You cannot demand from a programmer to be a nice speaking salesman, when you do, you are ending with a half baked software well sold.
The tech industry, like many other industries, uses simple filters (such as work experience or a college degree) to pick the number of people they have time to interview. The skills required to be a talented programmer, and the skills required to get and keep a job (or earn a living programming without a job) are not equivalent.