[venomsnake]

I had a big project failed once because at the beginning out rockstar programmer/ninja/free electron (and he was a genuine one) threw a temper tantrum and said - I am bored of working with Microchip Pics (don't worry if you are young and don't know what that is) I want to use something more powerful - so we switched vendors, the stack to keep him satisfied. It went downhill. Sometimes you need mediocre guy for a non demanding job.

A bored talented programmer can sink a project as good as incompetent one.

[GVIrish]

I think what you encountered is a different type of trap, the trap of the talented jerk. The guy/gal who is brilliant, so they're allowed to get away with a crappy and/or irrational attitude. Sometimes this works out well, but other times it'd be better to hire someone may not be of the same caliber skills-wise, but has a better attitude and is more pragmatic.

Your coworker might not have been a true "jerk" per se, but he certainly sounded irrational.