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Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

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Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#1
I and my team have been working on a platform for weeks now and we need to employ more developers. It's confusing to employ either the good ones or the ones who are really interested in what we are doing i.e they would still work even if they aren't on payroll

Re: Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#2
"good" can mean a lot of things. did you mean more competent?

> the ones who are really interested in what we are doing i.e they would still work even if they aren't on payroll

do you mean the one that aren't competent enough to get interesting job that are paid?

Re: Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#3
What do you mean by good? Are you talking about personality and character, or maybe technically good, or something else?

Anyway, here's what you shouldn't do:

- reduce people down to 2 dimensions that are hard to quantify

- assume that those dimensions are mutually exclusive and you somehow have to pick only one of them

- hire people, expect them to do extra work for free and call this passion

Re: Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#5

What do you mean by good? Are you talking about personality and character, or maybe technically good, or something else? Anyway, here's what you shouldn't do: - reduce people down to 2 dimensions that are hard to quantify - assume that those dimensions are mutually exclusive and you somehow have to pick only one of them - hire people, expect them to do extra work for free and call this passion

“Good” meaning a developer with great skills

Thanks

Re: Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#6
post #2

"good" can mean a lot of things. did you mean more competent? > the ones who are really interested in what we are doing i.e they would still work even if they aren't on payroll do you mean the one that aren't competent enough to get interesting job that are paid?

Currently I have several developers on ground and we can’t afford to pay every one of them. Though I have not employed them yet, But they’re all good, though some are better that the others, but right now I love to have co-workers who really love and are interested in what we do, not just building the stuff, buh also contributing to not only the code buh the idea behind the whole project and also wants to see that it succeeds

Re: Ask HN: As a startup do you employ good people over passionate ones?

#8
post #2

"good" can mean a lot of things. did you mean more competent? > the ones who are really interested in what we are doing i.e they would still work even if they aren't on payroll do you mean the one that aren't competent enough to get interesting job that are paid?

Currently I have several developers on ground and we can’t afford to pay every one of them. Though I have not employed them yet, But they’re all good, though some are better that the others, but right now I love to have co-workers who really love and are interested in what we do, not just building the stuff, buh also contributing to not only the code buh the idea behind the whole project and also wants to see that it…

I would hire the latter 100%, even if their technical skills are somewhat behind. They are the ones most likely to fill in any gaps they have and then some. The obvious exception is those that are all about passion, but do not add meaningful value of their own.
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