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Comment by imack | Hacker News Reader

I've worked at a place where "passion" meant "ignore everything and only care about coding". It also meant "work more hours, just because".

It was a software startup run by someone with a management consulting background (won't make that mistake again), and since the founder/CEO didn't know how to filter good programmers, he just sought "passion" and "fire in the belly" thinking that would make great developers.

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I think that's a totally different problem though: a manager who isn't a programmer trying to hire programmers.

I actually believe the two concepts are tied, and I get that sense from the article as well. A lot of people look for "passion" because it's something the believe they can detect and think it translates into more code and more hours worked. I think the idea of a super-productive introvert who never shows emotion doesn't fit well with the idea of what a productive employee looks like to a non-programming employer.

Of course, employment situations like this can be "hacked" by doing little Dilbert-esque things like closing ticket tasks at night rather than during the day to make it look like you're working later since the system sends emails to the management. That turned out to be one of my most productive career moves, which meant it was time for me to find a new job.

There's a difference between "passion" and passion. Passion is a good metric to judge candidates by. "Passion" isn't. :-)

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