Reading this I can't help but think of Joel's classic piece, Hitting the high notes. He did go into some productivity statistics collected by a prof who had, i

Reading this I can't help but think of Joel's classic piece, Hitting the high notes. He did go into some productivity statistics collected by a prof who had, in the course of his teaching, subjected many students to identical programming tasks. But what was far, far more compelling was this part: "The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce. Five Antonio Salieris won't produce Mozart's Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years." And great work in software can be replicated essentially for free. That's why a great programmer can be worth so very much more to a business than an average one. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html