Huh, I just realized I inherited a JS codebase from him in a previous job. The code was ingenious, perhaps too ingenious to maintain.

He surely must be getting headhunted a lot.

If this guy isn't getting headhunted, I have no idea what headhunting is. It's pretty rare for people to be able to write correct and easy-to-read guides to such low level concepts.

Finding a job is easy, finding the right job is hard for people like this.

Part and parcel of "There are not enough programmers [willing to work long hours for low pay]!"

For that talent, it might even be that the work is too boring regardless of the hours or pay.

Very true. I'm running into that right now: humdrum legacy CRUD apps, where the only challenge lies in being allowed* to refactor the code into decent shape.

*I wish I could put that in sarcastic quotes.