from a slashdot anonymous post:

A "good" programmer is a productive programmer, as needed, in the context of the problem. In other words, a good programmer adapts to the skill set needed to solve the current problem. This changes drastically from problem to problem.

The *only*, absolutely, unquestionably the *ONLY* way to evaluate a programmer is based on direct past experience with them. There is NO OTHER WAY!!! Everybody is completely fooling themselves with all the dumb little tests and riddles and IQ tests and evaluations. It is absurd.

There are a few magical people who actually can evalute programmers based on an interview. These people do not use any tricks -- no tests or riddles or exams or anything. They just talk to the person for awhile, and they seem to always make the right decision. This is not a skill that can be taught or explained -- some people have it, the rest of us never will. If you can find a good manager like this, hire them, and your company will have guaranteed success.

We still try to sell software as if it were eggs, wrapping it in boxes and inventorying it. Software is strange in that creating the original is very expensive, and duplicates are essentially free, yet we still persist in a financial model that tries to discourage widespread use of software. I propose instead we think of software as a service, like being connected to the water supply. You can use any programs you want as much as you want at any time for a monthly fee based on volume of use. What you use and how much you use is monitored, in order to fairly allocate the proceeds from the connection fees to the software creators.

Another way of thinking of this is that you should be able to rent all software by the minute, with a single bill collector.

I have expanded on this idea at http://mindprod.com/projsoftwarerental.html