It depends. How much do you need the project done? How quickly? If you will be dead in the market if you don't ship in six weeks, hire A. Let him work the way

It depends. How much do you need the project done? How quickly? If you will be dead in the market if you don't ship in six weeks, hire A. Let him work the way you know will make him productive, because your product depends on it. If being fast does not matter, if you know that the candidate has to deal with external clients, if you know that he will have to play politics, then hire B. Don't expect too much brilliance, but if you don't need fast, you don't need brilliant. In a startup, I would hire A and give him an area of responsibility where his drawbacks will cause fewest problems. In an "enterprise," I would hire B.