I replied to the original article basically saying it was a management problem. I stick by that. Even if Rick was a RockStar and wanted to take on all the work, management should have spotted that happening, stopped it, saying effectively no, you are not doing that work. Lack of control of his work is a major part of what went wrong here.

They let him feed his ego. So yes, he may have had (or not had) a big ego but the management either pandered to it, being afraid to upset him, or ignored it thinking they may as well take advantage of it.

If a car starts to run down a hill too fast, you apply the brakes or you crash. End of.