[microtonal]

I think it's this: the best programmers generally want to learn new languages and approaches.

This is true, however an inherent danger to Haskell/Lisp/ML-filtering is that this group has also a relatively high percentage of people who think every problem is a nail.

So filter for people who know functional languages, but also have plenty of experience with, say, C or C++ projects.

[j_baker]

You really believe functional programmers are more willing to treat their language choice as a golden hammer than C++ or Java programmers? You must have installed a different version of reality than I have.

[microtonal]

I didn't say filtering on Java was any better. Just that 'filter on Haskell or Lisp' is no golden rule. You will miss out on good candidates. There are great programmers out there who never really touched Scheme or Haskell outside a CS course.

Also, I think that a fairly large subset of C++ programmers who think that C++ is an ugly and complex language. But it's often practical, e.g. because it is used in legacy software, because it's fast (and provides more abstraction than C), or because many good cross-platform UI libraries use C++.