> When I hired a plumber for my heating firm, I put her through a hazing interview, tested her knowledge of Maxwell relations and thermodynamic equations. Oh wa

> When I hired a plumber for my heating firm, I put her through a hazing interview, tested her knowledge of Maxwell relations and thermodynamic equations. Oh wait, no I didn't. As she has been a plumber for years, so we recognised her skill and experience and cut to the chase. When I hired a plumber, I hired someone that was insured, had multiple good reviews online, and was able to give good, descriptive, and in depth details of the job he was going to do. Generally, a programmer will not insure their work, and usually you aren't hiring for a single job that can be designed and discussed in detail up front. Even so, some of the contractors were still pretty damn shoddy, and I've had to fix their work (or hire someone else to) in the past. Part of the problem is that I don't know enough about construction codes and the reasoning behind them to ask, eg, what kind of slopes and diameters pipes need to effectively carry sewage, when it's appropriate to use one type over another, etc. If I could, I would.