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I don't think question A: How do you identify programmers who finish things? and question B: How do you identify programmers addicted to novelty/who have a hard

I don't think question A: How do you identify programmers who finish things? and question B: How do you identify programmers addicted to novelty/who have a hard time internalizing business goals? are equivalent or even similar. Many developers are "addicted to novelty" because that is how the industry works. You don't get very far in the game by only knowing VB.NET and C++. To get a high salary you need to change jobs many times. To change jobs many times you need to have knowledge about the latest and greatest (AJAX, jQuery, MongoDB, TypeScript, Android, iOS, Rust, Go, Scrum, TDD, whatever...).

catherd 7y ago
They may not be equivalent, but for the purposes of this situation they are both worthy of identifying. You're justifying the game plan of a certain type of programmer. I'm asking how to find someone who's professional toolbox includes the ability to knuckle down and manage the boring shit until it's done, over a project-level time period. In this instance I don't want to hire an alphabet soup programmer who will move on to the next company as fast as the next resume update allows. If it's a side effect of kicking ass on a variety of projects, broad experience is a nice-to-have, but I need someone who will hang around long enough to internalize and take responsibility for business goals.