> What good developer can bring to a team is more valuable then 3-4 polite junior devs that have enthusiasm (which I value also highly) but can't produce quality stuff.
All good developers were less-good junior developers once. What I value most is the good, patient developer that turns all the developers around him into good developers over time. They're far more valuable than someone with a high production rate but who drives others away.
That all sound good but in practice rarely is the case. Good developers and every kind of smart people, scientists, are eccentrics, because they just know more then you and it is hard to explain everything every time.
> Good developers and every kind of smart people, scientists, are eccentrics
Not always, and "eccentric" doesn't mean "unable to be helpful or kind".
> because they just know more then you and it is hard to explain everything every time
Yes, it's hard. It's a different skill than programming or general intelligence. And it's a harder skill to find or to train. As a rarer skill, it's thus more valuable, and more useful to select for. And as an engineer, developing a rarer skill makes you more valuable, which will improve your career prospects (in both pay and position).
Source: I've been on both sides of numerous performance review processes, and seen what people value at many levels of a technical job ladder.
All good developers were less-good junior developers once. What I value most is the good, patient developer that turns all the developers around him into good developers over time. They're far more valuable than someone with a high production rate but who drives others away.