> The first 5 programmers hired with fast dwindling startup funds all need to be ultra talented and smart.
I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe I'm suffering for impostor syndrome, but when people mention "A-players", I'm thinking people mean something like "top five percentile". Which, if I'm going to pull names out of a hat, means you have a short-list like:
Steve Wozniak
Bryan M. Cantrill
Slava Akhmechet
Colin Percival
Linus Torvalds
And you've maybe already ruled out the "B-team" (here comically chosen because of their lack of direct engineering visibility -- currently obvious commit sign-offs -- not because of any assumed "lack of ability to make the A-team"):
Alan Kay
Guido van Rossum
Larry Wall (I really have no idea, I don't use perl. I suppose writing perl as a reaction to posix-shell fatigue at NSA actually qualifies for the A-team... but I mean ... perl. B-team. ;-)
I've only met one of the persons on either list. And they are all, way above what I can assume is available for most start-ups. For one thing, even if they all were awful 10 years ago, they've had 10 (30) years to really, really improve.
Now, if you mean that people with some kind of coherent idea of coding, adaptability etc -- or want to "shop down" to something like: https://www.codeeval.com/profile/e12e/ (that's me) -- feel free to send me an email.
But impostor syndrome aside -- I'm not "A-level" in any sense that is meaningful.
That doesn't mean I haven't encountered my share of javascript jockey's or single-minded php masters that have both fewer skills (not so bad) an more of a constrained mind (much worse) than me. But please don't label me "B-level" and "can code a wet paper bag in CSS" "C-level".
There was a time when all I did was code wet paper bags in CSS. Of course, I did web standards before it before it was cool[1] (and I'd learned to spell check emails) -- but I'm not sure how you can tell talent from mediocrity+experience. If you do, you should probably run an HR-startup.
I'm hard pressed to pull the names of all top 5% programmers in the world out of a hat -- as an example. I was trying to illustrate how I might pick some candidates, and try to bucket some into "A-level".
I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe I'm suffering for impostor syndrome, but when people mention "A-players", I'm thinking people mean something like "top five percentile". Which, if I'm going to pull names out of a hat, means you have a short-list like:
Steve Wozniak
Bryan M. Cantrill
Slava Akhmechet
Colin Percival
Linus Torvalds
And you've maybe already ruled out the "B-team" (here comically chosen because of their lack of direct engineering visibility -- currently obvious commit sign-offs -- not because of any assumed "lack of ability to make the A-team"):
Alan Kay
Guido van Rossum
Larry Wall (I really have no idea, I don't use perl. I suppose writing perl as a reaction to posix-shell fatigue at NSA actually qualifies for the A-team... but I mean ... perl. B-team. ;-)
I've only met one of the persons on either list. And they are all, way above what I can assume is available for most start-ups. For one thing, even if they all were awful 10 years ago, they've had 10 (30) years to really, really improve.
Now, if you mean that people with some kind of coherent idea of coding, adaptability etc -- or want to "shop down" to something like: https://www.codeeval.com/profile/e12e/ (that's me) -- feel free to send me an email.
But impostor syndrome aside -- I'm not "A-level" in any sense that is meaningful.
That doesn't mean I haven't encountered my share of javascript jockey's or single-minded php masters that have both fewer skills (not so bad) an more of a constrained mind (much worse) than me. But please don't label me "B-level" and "can code a wet paper bag in CSS" "C-level".
There was a time when all I did was code wet paper bags in CSS. Of course, I did web standards before it before it was cool[1] (and I'd learned to spell check emails) -- but I'm not sure how you can tell talent from mediocrity+experience. If you do, you should probably run an HR-startup.
[1] http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail84... (Oh, to have one's young hopes so brutally crushed. I suppose I should take some comfort that he probably thought I was a native English speaker).