While perhaps obvious to the crowd here, how you work <i>together</i> only matters if the team is talented enough to begin with.<p>I&#x27;ve worked for companies where the primary focus was put on &quot;empathetic, tolerant, and good listeners&quot; where everyone was afraid to rock the boat.  These were the least favorite environments of my career as they attracted lets just say not A players - and the inability to get things done was astounding.  Any talent that accidentally found it&#x27;s way into the company never lasted beyond 6 months.<p>There is a balance.  You need the raw tech talent to be there to get the project completed, but I agree you want those folks to play relatively nicely together.<p>The most functional teams I&#x27;ve been on have been relatively small, full of very opinionated but extremely talented people, and to an outsider it would have looked like organizational and social chaos.  However we all loved that period of our lives, and speak about it fondly.  When you&#x27;re on a team that is rapidly getting things done, but is passionate enough about the work to scream and yell it&#x27;s refreshing vs. the banality of the typical corporate dev&#x2F;tech&#x2F;IT job no one actually cares about.<p>So for me, I&#x27;d much rather work on a team of highly talented opinionated assholes than a team of untalented nice folks.