In fact during the talk someone asked Kent, “How does a company know if they are hiring a “geek” with good social skills?”. And Kent said, “Do what NBA does… Draft someone tall and hope he can play basketball!”.
]]>Of course being tall and agile helps with both 
All I’m saying is, you don’t need prior driving experience to learn how to drive a car. (provided you know the road rules) If you understand the dynamics of accelerating, breaking, stopping, turning and etc etc you can go ahead and learn and be a good driver!
In my view, any art form can be mastered, be it programming or rock climbing, with a bit of guidance and lots of practicing. ]]>
The client-focussed practices should guide everything we do, however what we do is unavoidably a technical job. As problem-solvers, our job is to bridge the gap between the customer’s problem and the technical solutions we can provide.
Doing this well involves a customer focus to understand their needs, but it also involves very strong technical skills. It is the entire spectrum we must master, not one extreme or the other.
e.g., a developer can totally understand the customer’s needs, but produce a rubbish product. This will not satisfy the customer.
In fact, the Accountability and Responsibility aspects listed directly relate to technical skills. e.g., under responsibility you note “developers need to be confident that they write high quality code with fewer bugs”. This is easier done with strong technical skills.
I disagree strongly that anyone can learn a programming language and be a competent developer. There is art of developing quality software – a strong degree of craftsmanship involved, which separates code-monkeys from true engineers.
In our team, yes, we are dynamic, have good attitudes, social skills and a great customer-focus – all of which are imperative. However, we are all very strong technically, and would not succeed if it were not also for this.
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