From my experience a "superstar" programmer is either somebody with Bi-Polar (works 40 straight hours) or a scam artist. Seen that playout now many,many times. A bi-polar worker can handle insane levels of work. it's just virtually impossible to keep up with them. Family member was a bi-polar canadaian air force pilot, physicist, and clinical pathologist that graduated from McGill and software developer (punch cards all the way through to Ruby). Nobody in his profession(s) could keep up with him...The other type of superstar is the bullshit artist. They slink away and start churning out unmaintainable garbage code that management loves. Than they'll disappear and the people that get left holding the bag are ".1x" programmers...I've seen those two scenarios play out a handful of times.