> Requests for advice and assistance are not good indicators of intellectual weakness - the expert marshalling of additional resources in resolving an issue is a good thing when utilized appropriately. An example would be an engineer toiling in silence through a difficult problem on their own even though the organization has a competent expert that can expedite the process.
Intellectual strength isn't the same as senior developer. There might be correlation but it's probably not super strong. I agree that someone not asking for help is definitely junior. But I might also argue that someone who does need to ask for help probably isn't as senior as you seem to think they are.
In an ideal world, this is probably the case. Unfortunately, there are a lot of non-ideal codebases in the world.
Even the worst developer can eventually develop fluency in a poorly-designed codebase and seem much more competent than they actually are, compared to a new hire.
Intellectual strength isn't the same as senior developer. There might be correlation but it's probably not super strong. I agree that someone not asking for help is definitely junior. But I might also argue that someone who does need to ask for help probably isn't as senior as you seem to think they are.