When I think about the great hackers I know, one thing they have in common is the extreme difficulty of making them work on anything they don't want to.
Ay, there's the rub: keeping highly productive people's interests aligned with the goals of the organization can be hard, particularly for tasks that don't take advantage of whatever it is they like about what they do. Organizations need to realize that this is the same for all great individuals, hackers or otherwise. The type of people ISVs like SourceGear need for success is probably different from the type needed by YCombinator startups.
Here here. Very insightful. I often wonder... I've made a pretty bad employee so far, which is one of the reason I'm a consultant for my cash monies and start companies whenever I can afford to. But... then again I've never had a really interesting job... ever.
I wonder if I would make a great employee at some kick ass company doing interesting research, large or small?
Exactly, this is a problem in any profession. When you run into a situation where you need someone to come in and fix something or do, at first, seemingly mindless work, it is incredibly hard to the right person. I guess the solution is to try and make sure you never create these 'opputunities' for future hires.
Ay, there's the rub: keeping highly productive people's interests aligned with the goals of the organization can be hard, particularly for tasks that don't take advantage of whatever it is they like about what they do. Organizations need to realize that this is the same for all great individuals, hackers or otherwise. The type of people ISVs like SourceGear need for success is probably different from the type needed by YCombinator startups.