Here we are -- 30 years later.

In 1986, Brooks wrote "No silver bullet." Brooks argues that there is much as a 10x difference between "good" designers and "great" designers. This was later shown to be closer to 20x in two different studies.

Among other things, he postulates that as programming is a creative process, some designers are inherently better than others. He advocates treating star designers equally well as star managers, providing them not just with equal remuneration, but also all the perks of higher status: large office, staff, travel funds, etc. Here is the original paper:

http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~pszcah/G51ISS/Documents/NoSilverBullet.html

Enjoy.