[chasedehan]

I would add a second element to the title "You Don't need Superstar Developers: You Need High-Acheivers"

The challenge is really having a mixed team of high talent and minimal talent. While yes, those who are of lower talent will learn more from the super talented, the inverse is not always true.

I have found many lazy (or at least not super motivated) devs who have the required minimum competence level, but are not super driven to crank out high quality work. This then makes me not want to work as hard.

This is a little different in that in general companies should go after high-achievers, rather than a minimum technical competence.

[Clubber]

I believe Spolsky summarized it as:

  1. Smart.
  2. Gets things done.