[RogerL]

"isn't the worst" is a pretty low bar.

As for your challenge, just about anyone I have worked for and respected. You don't know them, so you can use a No True Scotsman defense, I guess. That won't change that ego/jerkiness is completely unnecessary.

Bad decisions are catastropic in tech. That's a driving force for things like Agile. Running off and coding or building things without a plan is a recipe for disaster.

I can make you do something by screaming at you. That works to get you up over that hill to attack the pillbox. Doesn't work so well in tech where you will just quit.

[TeMPOraL]

But why do you assume that "rockstar dev who's being a jerk" means a despotic leader who only screams at people? I read it as a leader who is a) very opinionated, b) doesn't tolerate bullshit, c) may express himself in an offensive way. You could say that e.g. Patton was a rock-star jerk of military warfare, but it didn't mean he screamed at everyone all the time.

> Bad decisions are catastropic in tech.

No, they're not. What's the worst that could happen? Your SaaS cats-on-Instagram-to-save-the-world startup will flop. Or you won't deliver some product that's being delivered by 2000 identical companies around the world. Or some people won't get to see some annoying ads.

We're not talking medicine or space travel here. If we were, we'd be focusing on whether a leader is effective, not whether he's a nice person.

[sanderjd]

They meant catastrophic to your business, not catastrophic in some larger sense.

[TeMPOraL]

I know. And I meant to put all of this into a proper perspective.