http://blog.gerd-saurer.com/2007/07/17/hiring-software-developers/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:08:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://blog.gerd-saurer.com/2007/07/17/hiring-software-developers/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Christopher Semturs Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:28:00 +0000 http://blog.gerd-saurer.com/?p=14#comment-3 It's always this conflict between "engineers are artists" vs. "engineers are craftsman". Hard to decide.<br/>Joel goes for the artists-approach and got very extreme opinions (e.g. the limo service, which is even discussed on his amazon-review-page).<br/>I tend to compare engineers to soccer players: Some are very good when they start (or after some years of experience). But without a tough competition around them, especially if they are treated like artists, they become fastidious and think they are the absolute best and worth every money and every service they could take. That's why austrian soccer players, staying in Austria, don't improve any more. They lean back and are satisfied on the level where they are, don't improve, get frustated but recognize it almost too late (or sometimes too late) - or they start investing their energy into other, non-work-related areas.<br/>The same thing is true for engineers, at least from my point of view. Only a very small set of engineers I know search for challenges and competition, the others just do what they do. It's a pity. It’s always this conflict between “engineers are artists” vs. “engineers are craftsman”. Hard to decide.
Joel goes for the artists-approach and got very extreme opinions (e.g. the limo service, which is even discussed on his amazon-review-page).
I tend to compare engineers to soccer players: Some are very good when they start (or after some years of experience). But without a tough competition around them, especially if they are treated like artists, they become fastidious and think they are the absolute best and worth every money and every service they could take. That’s why austrian soccer players, staying in Austria, don’t improve any more. They lean back and are satisfied on the level where they are, don’t improve, get frustated but recognize it almost too late (or sometimes too late) - or they start investing their energy into other, non-work-related areas.
The same thing is true for engineers, at least from my point of view. Only a very small set of engineers I know search for challenges and competition, the others just do what they do. It’s a pity.

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