Yeah Mr Kernighan is quite an extreme case of being the opposite of "Bow to me, worms". It felt like he would be more comfortable being invisible. He had his (open) cube diagonally behind mine and I did not know who he was. To add to my embarrassment I mispelled his name. Now its too late to edit.

A conversation with a co-intern over lunch during the first week:

Friend:"Hey, do you know who he is ?"

Me (busy gorging awesome food): "No. But he got himself locked out and I had to let him in a few days ago. He was so profusely apologetic and thankful... I probably wouldn't have remembered otherwise. Checkout these steaks"

Friend: "Take a look at his name tag on his cube sometime."

And yes, more often than not humility co-habits with expertise.

I have a moderate hearing impairment, so nothing was as inspiring and humility instilling as seeing T.V. Raman work. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html