It may be possible but is it likely? If you only have to hire one dev for the job you might get lucky but I'm talking about macro trends here. A lot of jobs to

It may be possible but is it likely? If you only have to hire one dev for the job you might get lucky but I'm talking about macro trends here. A lot of jobs to a lot of people are just plain boring. Life sucks. You say the developer who cares will always produce something better. Isn't that assuming parity of technical ability? Big assumption. You don't have to be jaded to not invest in the product personally. What's wrong with just doing a good job with professional detachment? Maybe it's more the case that projects/domains vary in their scope for passion and belief. A small team working in a startup is a different world than a Java team working in a large bank where corporate structure dominates.