I was at the bookstore today and I was flipping through Joel On Software when I came across the chapter on hiring.  As is typical of other business books, it promoted a "hire the best" philosophy.  I've pondered this notion over the years, and wanted to share my thoughts.

Let me first say that I agree with the underlying philosophy of the advice, that being that a small number of highly-motivated, talented people can outperform an army of mediocre individuals.  However, there are several aspects of the "hire the best" mantra that have always bothered me.

First, it has unfortunately become a tired old management cliche.  Of course everybody says they hire the best.  Who would ever boast about hiring the worst?  And who would ever want to work for a company that brags about hiring the worst?  But saying you hire the best, and actually hiring the best are two very different things.

Second, it's a bit absolutist.  In my mind, if there are 17 million programmers in the world, then "hire the best" means 1 person has a job and the other 16,999,999 people are unemployed.  That's obviously impractical, making the advice at the most general level non-actionable.  I hate non-actionable advice.

Third, there really is no such thing as "the best".  There are a variety of factors that make up a good associate - raw intelligence, communication skills, people skills, work ethic, etc.  Every potential employee will have a unique mix of these aspects ... no one is perfect at everything.

Fourth, what does it say about me?  Am I the best?  I do the very best I can to "sharpen the saw" of my personal skill set.  I read programming books and magazines, self-teach myself new technologies, read blogs, and attend all manner of workshops, user groups, and code camps.  I feel like I'm at the top of my game, and the best programmer that I've ever been.  But am I the absolute best?  In a world filled with so much talent, it would be very conceited of me to make such a claim.

Lastly, what do you do if you live in a small city like I do that isn't the epicenter of the technological world?  Should I move to San Jose, CA or Redmond, WA, where the per-capita talent may be higher than where I live?  And how can I compete as a small software company if all the other larger software companies have already gobbled up the best talent?

So here's my take on it.  I don't think you need to move to California or Washington.  I think there are plenty of smart people all around ... you just have to find them.  I think you should hiring the smartest people you can find, invest in them to help them be the best they can be, and encourage them to fanatically acquire domain knowledge.

The latter two points above seem to be glossed over too quickly by "hire the best" aficionados.  Yes, raw talent is a very important aspect, but I think great programmers are born over time, not stamped out at a factory.  And I want people who care intensely about what they're doing and want to learn everything they possibly can about their domain.  There are just too many people in the world that want to punch a clock and pick up a paycheck.  Give me people with passion.

Which brings me to my closing thought ... leadership.  You can have the best people in the world, but without great leadership they won't accomplish much.  And in a small software company, leadership pretty much comes down to one thing ... YOU.