Years ago, I worked w/ a guy who talked religion & politics at work. He was brilliant. We were collaborating w/ another start-up on a project and he identifie

Years ago, I worked w/ a guy who talked religion & politics at work. He was brilliant. We were collaborating w/ another start-up on a project and he identified a subtle, but "embarrassing" error that the other company had made in our collaboration (the rest of my team missed it--including me). A few years after I had left the company, the CEO of our collaborating company called me up and said, "I'm trying to hire <brilliant guy> away from your old company. Anything else I should know about him?" I said, "Do you know how you're not supposed to talk religion or politics at work? Well, <brilliant guy> will do both--He won't be obnoxious, but he won't hesitate to express his opinion and argue. If you can deal with that, he's worth his weight in gold." They hired him.