There is a perfectly reasonable, fair, simple, and drama/angst-free way to dispatch this problem. "Can I just google it?" "Sure. That's just not worth very mu

There is a perfectly reasonable, fair, simple, and drama/angst-free way to dispatch this problem. "Can I just google it?" "Sure. That's just not worth very much to me that's all." Now if they don't like that, which of course they may not, at least you don't have to struggle with the changing norms or fairness or anything like that. Put that way it's very cut & dried and up to them, as long as you're at least willing to help them succeed if any decide they want to take up the challenge. Mean time you can still get some product out of them, and they can still just google if that's all they want to do, but there is no reason to pay them like rock stars if they're not. And that's your answer to your bosses too. And you can keep an eye out for better developers at the same time with some budget available to pay them, or maybe identify at least one potential for training up from within your existing team. There probably is at least one who would take to it even if they aren't impressive today.