I would like to dispel this notion once and for all: you do not have to have a special talent to work on the kernel unless you count dogged persistence and patience as a talent.
He is correct, but in a completely wrong way: this is why GNU/Linux has never been, and never will be anything more than just "good enough" (and there goes my karma in a retaliatory action, but someone had to write it).
Let me clarify what I mean by that: an operating system's kernel is the last stop in computer science, and requires formal education, lots and lots of formal education, coupled with lots and lots of experience, coupled with the most important ingredient, insight.
That's why when one compares a kernel like Linux and illumos, illumos is light years more sophisticated: it was done by professionals, with formal education, and with deep, deep insights into the thorniest of issues in production at the largest companies in the world. Now, you could argue Linux has this type of exposure now, but what it does not have is 25+ years head start in this exposure, and it does not have the people. And that makes all the difference in the world.
And when you read ideas like you do not have to have a special talent to work on the kernel, that kind of mentality speaks volumes of the product. And indeed, Linux is the product of such a mentality.