[sirbetsalot]

Sadly this is still a relevant question due to the fact that if you give your programmers every leeway they will take advantage, not work, slack for 2 weeks and do nothing. happens all the time.

As a boss nothing angers you more then paying someone 7-10k a month on top of all the taxes and costs and watching them bitch and complain about coming to the office and commit nothing until the "feel like it" under the guise of "programming happens when it happens". This is real money and it is painful to raise it and just give it away. The developer doesn't have to answer to the angry investors and have their reputation ruined forever when the company fails. They get to skate off and go work at Facebook with valuable "startup experience" under their belt.

The reality is that 99% of programmers have bad attitudes and if you find the gem that actually pulls the cart with you, hold on to that unicorn with every ounce of your being.

[mooreds]

Do you think that 99% of all employees have bad attitudes, or is it just developers?

I'm asking because I've met very few developers who "commit nothing until they 'fell like it'". Those don't sound like professionals, they sound like children, and I agree, it would be frustrating to depend on someone like that.

[sirbetsalot]

99% of developers cannot organize themselves and develop a monstrous amount of high quality code in a short period of time. 100% of developers can demand big paychecks, all of the perks, working from wherever they want, never working in an office and work on their own time when they feel like it.

As an employer I used to be upfront and tell developers there is a 90% chance you will be gone in the first week, but if you make it i'll pay you 15k a month no problems and give you anything you want.

I went from a 75% bad hire rate to a 0% bad hire rate after that. just 1 data point here.