Dusty Volumes

A software development manager told me that he had a way to measure who were his best programmers and who were his worst. Fascinated, I asked him how he did it. He told me that he observed who was always out asking questions of users and other programmers. I thought this was a terrific measure, and I discussed it with him with great excitement.

After a few minutes, however, I realized that he thought the programmers who spent the most time asking questions were his worst ones. I, on the other hand, thought that they were probably the best programmers in his shop.

— Jerry Weinberg, Quality Software Management Vol 1, Chapter 12