I keep seeing this in books, hearing it in casual chatter but is it really true? I would not consider the best three programmers I have had the pleasure to work with prima donnas in any way, from my view at least. If they are prima donnas, is it worth keeping them around? I have also read that the most productive developer will be 400% more effective than your least productive and 10% more productive than your 'average' developer. There are bad programmers every where. I know of a few. When comparing the best to worse, it is an easy decision but when you compare the best with the average, does that 10% warrant keeping them around if the prima donna requires 30% more of a manager's time than the 'average' Joe?