And I'm just wondering how other "regular" folk, like me, find ways to compete with this kind of talent.

I'm simply hiring hit-men ;-)

Seriously I try to not think in term of 'competition',
I'd be honest I'm sometimes amazed by some monks abilities...
(Japhy, Masem, Tilly, Merlyn, Tye, book, damian1301 to name few but also some 'newbies'...)

I take it as an example to work even harder, and improve.

I take it as a great chance too, it's not so common to see so many talented people in one place,
It's a unique opportunity to learn new interesting things.
And I'm not only talking about technical things, japhy citing 'Le petit prince' "dans le texte" is one example of things that really turn me on.


"Only Bad Coders Code Badly In Perl" (OBC2BIP)