It's the Steve Jobs conundrum - where someone is an asshole but clearly also very talented. For me two thoughts come out of this: 1) Yes they've been producti

It's the Steve Jobs conundrum - where someone is an asshole but clearly also very talented. For me two thoughts come out of this: 1) Yes they've been productive the way they work, but have they been more or less productive than if they'd been just as right but a little less confrontational? Research generally doesn't show confrontation to be the most productive approach for most people. Is their style productive, or is it unproductive but they get away with it because they're so good that people will put up with it? You say that the best course of action if you want to avoid Theo's ire is not to write bad code, but how many people have taken another approach? The one that springs to mind is not working with him and how much talent does the project miss out on because people just steer clear? I know plenty of very smart programmers who simply don't go near projects where the culture and personalities are like that. Bad behaviour towards others (even when you're right) limits the available pool of skills. 2) I can live with the arsehole geniuses but others who aren't as able often use the likes of Jobs or Theo to justify their own poor, destructive behaviour. For me at least, that doesn't work - if you're going to be as big a dick but you're not as good as them you're basically just a dick and if the day eventually arrives when the IT industry doesn't have a massive skills shortage, those people will cease to be tolerated.