If you want a cofounder for a startup: sanity, trustworthiness, determination, general intelligence, hacking skills, and ability to do things you're bad at.

By sanity I'm assuming you mean serious horse's-head-in-the-refrigerator loopiness and not the sort of insanity that makes grown men construct trebuchets or think they can write novels. Also, I considered trustworthiness and honesty for that list but didn't include them because I think most people are honest and weeding out the remaining few may take time, but those are all good points.

'Sanity' made me chuckle. It's important, but it's like listing 'not a serial killer'.

Serial killers are one in a million, if that, whereas I suspect at least 1% of good hackers are too crazy to work with.

That's interesting. Can you say why you suspect that without naming names, or list some traits that would make someone too crazy to work with? Did anything specific happen at a company you can talk about?

I can't think of anything that would qualify any of the dozen or so programmers I know as crazy. It'd be interesting to know what a crazy hacker is like.

If you haven't met the 1% he's talking about... it might be you :)

It'd be arrogant to rule that possibility out, but I'm cheerful.

Especially when I have dinner arrangements with Hannibal.

Hey, wanna tag along sometime? We'd love to have a friend for dinner.

This is probably true of people in any creative field.

From what I understand it's also multiplicative. So for example if someone were both a hacker and a painter...

I murdered a lot of people; lets get rich.

I hate to be so Covey's Seven Habits, but you gotta find someone that has the passion, skills, ethics, and temperament. These are the leadership skills needed to avert the worst situations.

They've gotta be able to communicate and be open-minded. And most of all, they have to have these qualities in lieu of a big ego. Sometimes, we 20-something's think we know a lot more than we actually do. I think the best of us are those that can listen attentively to contrary opinions.

Thank you so much for the link, it's the best I've read on the subject.

If someone has curiosity, good communication skills, and a modicum of coding skills, that's all you really need. Domain, platform, and computer science knowledge can all be acquired as needed. Compatible personality is moderately useful; however, you can always get around conflicts by partitioning the project into areas where you designate one or the other of you as the head overseer who gets dictatorial powers in that area.

Nunchuck skills.

It's too hard to follow the order that someone types. Is there a more user friendly way to present this information?

Creativity [1] is another very important characteristic to have on the team. And luckily you can detect the most creative people within minutes of talking to them about hard problems.

[1] n. the use of the imagination or original ideas (O.A.D.)

The critical two attributes in a successful partner without question are raw brainpower and an unwavering determination to succeed. Everything else is gravy.

raw brainpower is over rated

I agree - sheer enthusiasm and get it done attitude makes up and then some more for raw brainpower.

Something else that is important in the context of compatible personality is someone who is very direct and critical when needed.

That's a good point. The ability to disagree well is useful. I'd rather work with someone who won't automatically rubber-stamp everything I say but instead, when he disagrees, can argue his points in a clear and well-informed way. It is rather satisfying to be proven wrong and learn something in the process.

A friend of mine who works at Goog since the early days has noted several times that he frequently feels like the dumbest person in the room. He's quite bright and probably would be the smartest person in MOST rooms.

I think I would rather work somewhere I would feel like the dumbest person in the room than the smartest.

One I'd add: Resilience. The ability to have frustrating disagreements or problems and get past them easily without the build up of any residual resentment.

I think you might be checking too many things, which will make it almost impossible to hire someone. I would just evaluate on A,C, E, F, H, K

Question, from A to L what do qualities do you think you already have?

A, E, J, F, K, D, B, H, I, C, L, G

Mental problems. I jest not. All (financially) successful people I know have serious mental problems. It's that special little fire in the belly that keeps you warm all those hard, lonely nights until you make it. Plus the extra voices in your head keep you company late at night. Oh and sexual frustration. Sublimation is a powerful tool if used properly. How many sexually satisfied folks with hot girlfriends who tend to their needs regularly do you know who are part of startups? None? Think about it. Your startup is your mistress. And professionalism. The ability to wait until after you've hit the jackpot to write that article about what a jackass your partner is, but to use the tension as fuel until you do so. Delusions of grandeur helps.

Good answer. I think you might be right. I'm afraid you might be right.