> Key learning for me, is that it's a lot better to hire smart people to learn, than it is to hire stupid people to do something that they already know how to d

> Key learning for me, is that it's a lot better to hire smart people to learn, than it is to hire stupid people to do something that they already know how to do. When I was working on open source projects in a community that attracted non-programmers and existing programmers who wanted to contribute I also found this to be true in some way. It's a little different in that I'm not asking people to join but rather they want to join. Some of the "senior" programmers who wanted to be part of the community were a bit arrogant, looked down on other programmers, wanted to be part of the community but still somewhat distant, wanting to do their own thing entirely in isolation, etc. Meanwhile the "junior" programmers were full of energy, would fix small issues others were blind to, try working on new features in context with the community, more willing to learn, active otherwise in the community, etc. So in this case I'd frame it more as motivation than being smart or stupid. I think the same applies to larger companies too, overall juniors tend to have more drive. Even myself, when I was younger I definitely had more energy to start random projects every week for random ideas, but nowadays I *feel* like I've explored everything interesting under the sun (I know in reality I have not) and so I'm a lot more picky about what I decide to start.