A lot of insight in these posts.
I think a lot of it has to do with binary view vs. shades of gray.
Most talented technical people see the world in a binary context. This is good for the skill sets that they pursue but make many "life Issues" difficult to deal with.
The classic profile of a successful CIO was one who could make the transition form the technical side (binary) to the business side (gray) and function in both worlds, but more than that translate between the two.