> We were once able to hand him a detailed specification for a complex interface. Several people (smart people, mind you) had tried implementing it already and

> We were once able to hand him a detailed specification for a complex interface. Several people (smart people, mind you) had tried implementing it already and the results were always flaky after a couple of weeks of development. In about 2 days he had a very elegant looking implementation that I don't think we ever had to edit or fix again. While he may not have been "productive" in the traditional sense, it is quite possible that he saved the business and development team countless hours of lost time down the line by implementing the documented process to spec in such a manner as to not require future downtime or maintenance...