This is a shocking attitude. Assuming that a highly skilled software developer is more likely to have body odor, have poor social skills, be alcoholic, be sexually creepy, etc., is shocking to me.
Hiring managers that have this attitude are not the next Steve Jobs, that's for sure.
Steve Jobs specifically looked for the "multiplier factor" when hiring:
In choosing key members of his team, he looks for the multiplier factor of excellence. Truly outstanding designers, engineers and managers, he says, are not just 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent better than merely very good ones, but 10 times better. Their contributions, he adds, are the raw material of “aha” products, which make users rethink their notions of, say, a music player or cellphone.
Hiring managers that have this attitude are not the next Steve Jobs, that's for sure.
Steve Jobs specifically looked for the "multiplier factor" when hiring: In choosing key members of his team, he looks for the multiplier factor of excellence. Truly outstanding designers, engineers and managers, he says, are not just 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent better than merely very good ones, but 10 times better. Their contributions, he adds, are the raw material of “aha” products, which make users rethink their notions of, say, a music player or cellphone.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/weekinreview/31lohr.html