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To: Paul Engel who wrote (43590)	1/2/1998 1:30:00 PM
From: StockMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Paul, Re -- one "genius" can outdo legions of programmers. Yes, but legions of programmers can quickly copy the genius. That has been most of Microsoft's success. Stockman

To: Paul Engel who wrote (43590)	1/2/1998 1:36:00 PM
From: Pierre-X	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 186894

Re: Software Devt; Developer Talent Hello Paul, It may be somewhat unfair to single out Microsoft from the multiple release standpoint. Historically very few software packages from any shop have achieved their full potential inside of three or four releases. However I observe that often, Microsoft's first release will be utter crap, very buggy, major usability problems ... completely useless to anybody. The package only becomes useful after imitating and stealing features from other, similar apps by other vendors. To wit: Microsoft Windows -- complete crap for two releases Microsoft Windows NT -- in release 4 (3.1, 3.5, 3.51, and now 4.0), still not up to par in some respects with UNIX or Novell Microsoft Money Microsoft Excel -- which became marginally useful in release 2, and finally achieved maturity in release 3, after imitating features from Quattro) Microsoft Netmeeting -- still feature-struggling, and highly performance challenged in release 2 Microsoft Chat -- in release 2, which is still useless Microsoft Powerpoint -- complete crap for several releases Microsoft Project -- a piece of software that screwed up Microsoft for many years by imposing a counter-productive scheduling scheme Hmm, it looks like just about everything they've ever produced was unusuable crap in the first couple of releases. However, as you say they keep trying and stealing until the thing becomes a decent piece of software. With respect to the relative productivity of the spectrum of developer talent -- one genius can accomplish things that any number of average coders could not. I would like to hear what people think is the best way to attract genius coders. Having been a full time C++ programmer myself in the past, and also having been on the hiring side, I can tell you that typical corporate practices fail miserably at screening between geniuses, competent people, and morons. Many times developers will be hired without anyone ever actually looking at their code! Would you hire an architect without first admiring buildings he/she has designed? PX