If you spend a few years at university (I have two degrees), you learn things like sorts, automata, proofs, and calculus.
On the other hand, most of the junk I deal with day-to-day as a working software developer turns more on my knowledge of tools like Chef/IntelliJ, software libraries (the stdlib of various languages, the Java/.NET BCLs), build systems, git/github, and how to do a proper code review.
For most stuff today, I would highly prefer the person with more tools experience. Granted, there are some problems people who aren't "10x developers" could never solve (e.g. writing linux) but for most stuff industrial software devs today are doing, it just doesn't matter. You just need to write the code, it needs to be maintainable, and it needs to be done as quickly as possible.
You compare two people who have different skills. Presumably either one could learn the skills of the other. Why choose the one with the easiest skills to learn?
If you spend a few years at university (I have two degrees), you learn things like sorts, automata, proofs, and calculus.
On the other hand, most of the junk I deal with day-to-day as a working software developer turns more on my knowledge of tools like Chef/IntelliJ, software libraries (the stdlib of various languages, the Java/.NET BCLs), build systems, git/github, and how to do a proper code review.
For most stuff today, I would highly prefer the person with more tools experience. Granted, there are some problems people who aren't "10x developers" could never solve (e.g. writing linux) but for most stuff industrial software devs today are doing, it just doesn't matter. You just need to write the code, it needs to be maintainable, and it needs to be done as quickly as possible.