A quick word about prima donna hackers

Is every prima donna really one hundred times as productive as the middle of the Gaussian distribution who have a degree? Maybe, maybe not. But this post is about those prima donnas who really are from another planet, and the people who hire and manage them.

This is not a team. It's not a boat, not a machine that has a lot of parts of it that have to work together. The metaphors are all crap. This is a business - that's all it is.

Vogler in "House," Season One Episode Fifteen, "Mob Rules"

Read the sports section of the newspaper. Or do a Google News search for Terrell Owens. He's a superstar, one of the truly gifted who can change a football team dramatically. He's also incredibly high maintenance. And he's just been fired.

The bottom line? His team is losing. Here's the way it really works. Let's make things simple and say that Terrell is worth four wins to the team. If the team can make the playoffs without him, four extra wins makes the difference between making the playoffs and making it to the Superbowl.

When a team is losing, the same four wins are only the difference between just missing the playoffs and being out of it a month before the season ends. Although the difference in number of games won might be the same, the "utility" is far lower.

Now consider the cost. When the team is doing well, most of the players, fans, and management are basically happy. The distraction of a loose cannon is just that. A distraction. But when the team is losing and everyone is unhappy, a loose cannon is more like a bouncing hand grenade. Everyone is sore.

And even if a coach or manager is detached enough not to take a difference of opinion conveyed through the media personally, it's hard to turn a team's culture around and make changes when your authority is so visibly undermined. Basically, a prima donna provides less value to a losing team and costs more.

And yes, I'm going to say that the same thing applies to software development. If you're rocking and rolling in a growth environment where you're shooting the lights out, prima donnas provide value. They can make the difference between "just shipping" and hitting a liquidity event. They provide more value and cost less.

But if things aren't going well... a prima donna is going to be a distraction at a time when others have very little tolerance for a contrarian viewpoint.

And that's why you often see prima donnas flourishing in start ups but exiting when the company goes enterprise and development is no longer the value add.

Labels: jobs, passion

  ¶ 4:26 PM