This is false on its face. There's a reason why a company, even today, would hire John Carmack over a person with no reputation, or offer him a higher salary if employing both people.
Unionising is definitely something worth considering. But, as with the question of whether it's better to compete or cooperate with other people in your field, is a nuanced question that depends on details you aren't acknowledging.
But also, do you not see the irony in the fact that, aside from John Carmack's obviously high degree of individual competency, another huge aspect of Carmack's value as an engineer, is how he's dedicated a huge portion of his career and his time to -- wait for it -- SHARING his knowledge and his approach (and yes, his personal setup? [1]). Carmack is actually an excellent proof-point of the positive value of knowledge-sharing and building a career on a foundation of openness, rather than an argument that engineers should selfishly guard their secrets and retreat into their own personal caves to guard their perceived local/private moats.
[1] Just one random example, out of probably thousands of such interviews or blog posts or whatever that he's probably done over his career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzr7hRXcwkw
> It won't matter what hard problem solving moat you think you have
If that is "a new dimension that is irrelevant to the original argument", you'll have to take that up with them. (I think it is a load-bearing part of their core argument.)
A year or two ago there were some very precise workflows documented here. The reluctance now would mark the transition away from "sharing helps me" to "sharing hinders me" ...it's an interesting topic. Sharing with strangers may be the problem because the favour will never be returned - at least not in a direct way. But, metaphysically according to natural laws it might be. Because sharing a valuable secret openly is such a powerful way to express abundance. It grants someone followers. It also prevents people from filing a patent on it.
4 years later House survived a 25m climbing fall.
It's all about one's internal motivation. "Those that can, do, and those that can't, teach."
Well, what happens if "those that can," actually teach?
Just imagine if all sporting stars shared their secrets.. what would happen? Secrets just occur naturally, if you don't share, they'll likely be stolen unless protected - and that requires effort too.