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I'm a top programmer but am not going to get into a big pissing match about it here.

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Programming is like stock-picking in that most people who do it seem to think they are much better than other people at it. I suppose it's because most people are extremely bad at it and even people who are good at it often write horrible code, so it's easy for one programmer to say, well, look at this code that someone else wrote, I can do much better. Thus comparing their potential upside with someone else's actual output, which is a fallacy. Since I'm genuinely interested on the topic of self-assessment, I'm curious - what makes you think you're a top programmer? Top programmers tend to think on a completely different level about programming than mediocre ones. They also tend to be extremely, extremely smart.

But maybe I'm wrong and you're a gifted programmer; in which case you should PM me since I need help in implementing a numerical analysis/spreadsheet package (and by that I don't mean something based on Excel or Matlab or anything, but something that would be a replacement). You wouldn't believe the upside should this be successful and it doesn't look like you're getting paid much now anyway.

Also, I posted a link to an article earlier about how incompetence leads to inflated self-assessment - did you by have a chance to read it? If you didn't, I would recommend that you do. Anecdotally, it appears to me that most people are extremely good at ignoring evidence that contradicts their self-image.