A friend of mine told me they bumped into a famous singer. It got me thinking that those people probably aren’t famous because they are exceptionally better at singing than other singers compared to say a woodworker who is exceptionally better than other woodworkers. They’re famous because music is famous and the woodworker isn’t because woodworking isn’t famous. It has nothing to do with their relative skill in their profession. That thought actually made me quite happy with the thought that I could’ve met many people at the apex of their skill and I would just never know.
I’ve had the same thought myself. Also I think the more accomplished someone is at something, the less they bring it up since they must be so comfortable with it, so there’s an even smaller chance of discovery.
Dunning Kuger is also at play. People who are, like, given a little bit of knowledge on a topic will often overestimate their abilities. But on the flip side, people who have a lot of knowledge on something tend to underestimate their abilities.
Without some narcissism and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get what you want, you could very well be the world leader in a particular subject and by all other metrics be completely unknown, unknowable, and uninteresting.