[michaelochurch]

This is the "I don't know how to do it, so no one does" fallacy. Total bullshit.

See, I'm pretty confident that, in a focused year of mentoring, I could turn anyone with strong general intelligence (say, IQ over 125) into a good programmer. If I can train someone into a hard job, then it can't be that difficult to train someone into a much easier job.

You should be extremely clear up front that you expect your executives to be world-class in their functions. If they are not, they will not keep their jobs.

Oh, this is just self-congratulatory claptrap. I don't consider myself a "world-class" programmer. I'm good, but it's not like I'm not one of the 20 best out there. And I'm far more "world-class" than 99 percent of tech executives.