"See? Joel Spolsky knows the secret to hiring Great Developers. Not only that, he knows how bad things can go when you hire the complement of the set of Great

"See? Joel Spolsky knows the secret to hiring Great Developers. Not only that, he knows how bad things can go when you hire the complement of the set of Great Developers, namely honkin' bad, can't-solve-a-brain-teaser about-pirates-and-blindfolds and-poisoned-bottles-and-buried-treasure to-save-their-life† Mediocre Developers. Therefore, you should buy consulting services and/or products from Fog Creek. Because you know Fog Creek only hires Great Developers." Was the trojan horse message behind Joel's now-infamous Great Developers meme, which we are currently about midway through the second decade of. And that's really all people should have read it as -- part sincere opinion; but part pure and simple marketing shtick for Fog Creek.†† Yet it's taken on a life of it's own, as we know all too well by now -- with no endpoint in sight. † Such brain teasers -- and the ability to solve them right there, on the spot, with strangers staring you, and your career hanging in the balance -- being, according to JS's unequivocal belief (until it finally became woefully unfashionable), if not absolutely necessary, at least fantastically useful and effective in telling Great Developers from Mediocre Ones. †† A great, or at least an okay company, by all accounts (aside from this single, unintentedly onerous piece of marketing shtick from the early 2000s).