Help With Hiring Python Developers

[Ian Bicking]

Yet Another Mike wrote:
> "Ed Leafe" <ed at leafe.com> wrote in message 
> news:mailman.7125.1102131626.5135.python-list at python.org...
> 
>>>Allow offsite workers and you'll have all the candidates you want.
>>
>>Exactly. I'm 5 hours away in Rochester, NY, and might be interested
> 
> 
> And, if they are willing to go offsite, why not go to India and save lots of 
> bucks?

Trust issues?  In general, Python requires you trust your programmers. 
People give Java grief about its restricted environment and static 
typing, but if you don't trust the programmer to do a good job, at least 
with Java they (maybe) can't mess things up as badly for everyone else 
working on a project.  You can mess things up royally with Python.  I 
like working with a language that respects my intelligence, but that's 
not without its costs.

In general, Python rewards highly-skilled programmers with a 
considerably increased productivity.  We talk about how Python is also 
easy to learn and maintain, and that's still true, but it doesn't mean 
that it evens out the differences in productivity between programmers. 
In fact, quite the opposite -- that it's easy to learn and maintain 
means that there's less risk in using a highly skilled, highly 
productive programmer; in other languages you risk being left with a 
program that only another highly skilled programmer can maintain.

Also, Python encourages agile methodologies, even if you aren't 
explicitly trying to use agile methodologies.  They just work well. 
They also work well when you can have a more intimate relationship 
between developer and project manager or customer.  Hiring in India or 
elsewhere makes that intimate relationship harder to create.  And 
frankly, Python is not the language for companies who expect mediocrity 
in their programmers, and I think that outsourcing is for companies that 
expect mediocrity.

I don't mean to insult Indian programmers -- certainly there are Indian 
programmers who are just as good as a good programmer in the US, able to 
communicate well, able to work independently, able to judge tradeoffs, 
etc.  But those aren't the cheap ones.  This isn't just about nation of 
origin.  Outsourcing is about turning programmers into a commodity, and 
you can only make a commodity out of something where quality isn't an 
issue.  In the case of programming, that means you must expect the 
lowest common denominator of quality given the constraints.  I think 
that's a stupid way to look at programming in general, but it's *way* 
more stupid with Python.

-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb at colorstudy.com  / http://blog.ianbicking.org