So I’m sitting here thinking about What makes a Great Developer.

Now just to poke a bit of fun ;-)

I quote – “A lean company needs to make sure that they hire only the most productive, self-directed, and creative development staff possible”. I’m wondering, does a company ever state “Let’s hire the least productive, wanderers, who couldn’t have an original thought if it was implanted in their brain”? ;-)

Seriously though. All companies want to hire the best.  [News from the Forest]

Well, at many large companies I’ve worked with (with a couple notable exceptions), they will hire “average” developers, simply because they have a need to staff up quickly and they can’t take the time to look for the “best”.  My philosophy is the opposite; if someone who’s really, really good appears on your doorstep, you’d better try to hire him (her) whether you need to staff up or not; because if you don’t, he’s (she’s) not going to be available tomorrow.  You also better come up with something exciting for them to work on.  Of course there are business issues with this, and it may not apply in all situations…

But if you can build a team comprised solely of really, really good people, you can do some amazing things.