[AngryParsley]

So great startup engineers should have focus, compassion, balance, responsibility, and openness. When would you ever not desire these traits in someone? The opposite is scatter-brained, indifferent, unbalanced, irresponsible, and uncommunicative; all rather undesirable traits.

I'd much prefer to learn about some trade-offs. Is lacking any one of these traits a deal-breaker? What if someone's very focused and compassionate, but a little irresponsible?

And most importantly, how does one evaluate these traits?

[calinet6]

Hey, you brought up another one: not a black-and-white thinker!

Things are not only their extremes and the opposite. Hence why "balance" is actually an extremely undervalued quality in a person, and it was very apt of the author to call it out.

[dclusin]

I think your observation about thinking in black and white is a good observation. However, you still haven't answered the OP's original question. And adding your observation to the list, these sorts of things are still required at large organizations.

[yesimahuman]

In my experience, it's rare that all of these traits are active in someone at the same time. This is what he was getting at. One can still be a good engineer and lack some of these qualities, but that wasn't the point.