I can work around bad attitude, but I can't work around incompetence. Besides, you do not gain true technical expertise without the ability to eventually recogn

I can work around bad attitude, but I can't work around incompetence. Besides, you do not gain true technical expertise without the ability to eventually recognize a good solution for one. So while you may encounter initial resistance when you broach a new idea to a good techie (usually because if he's good, he's already given the problem a lot of thought and hence really thinks his is the right solution) if your idea has merit, she will usually come around after cooling down a little. That has been my experience, anyway. Conversely, if you think your idea is really good and he refuses to come around and is unable to give a logical reason why, then a) he's not really that good or b) he's good but you did not understand what he said.