> And if so, why would companies want to hire them? I've often thought the best programmers mostly do it as a hobby, instead of imparting their skills to a com

> And if so, why would companies want to hire them? I've often thought the best programmers mostly do it as a hobby, instead of imparting their skills to a company where what they've programmed is discarded within a week and has lost its value quickly. On the other hand, there are hobbyist coders who impart their skills to a side project / SaaS product that they /fully control/ and the code won't be discarded a week later. The value remains.