Lead programmer insists there's something wrong with their computer to system admin, ends up being their own code: 'I tried not to laugh, but I just couldn't hold it in'

Educational qualification is interesting in the sense that it can mean wildly different things because—well, people are wildly different themselves. We perceive, retain, and apply information completely differently from one another. No two people are the same, and remember and apply things in the same way. Some people are great at memorizing and can ace any exam purely on the power of their short-term information retention, whether they actually understand how everything fits together or not.

So, while holding an advanced degree can mean you're intelligent, it doesn't necessarily mean that, and it's usually the people who insist that they're better and smarter than everyone else because of their degree who fall into that "not necessarily" category. The lead programmer in this story is one of those people.

The reality is that while having the dedication to commit years of your life to study is admirable, dedication doesn't always equal intelligence, and sometimes smacking your head against the wall enough times will still spark a good idea... Plenty of people with advanced degrees are absolute bricks in other areas and have the least common sense of anyone you've ever met. Just ask my classmate in my freshman year of university who failed Biology 101 but was eventually admitted to medical school because of their dad's connections. As the old saying goes… Medical students who get Cs still go by "doctor," and even if they technically pass their schooling, they might continue to fail their patients for their entire careers. 

It should be noted here that this same argument is true for any traditional marker for success that we might have. Being rich, famous, or successful in any way does not automatically mean that you're a paragon who should be idolized in all ways. Sure, we'll all make mistakes, but the truly intelligent among us will know when they do so and know how to laugh at themselves; they probably also wouldn't have done what this coworker did in the first place.