The problem is the person hiring the programmer has no idea what the difference is between a good programmer or a novice one or sloppy one. Learn some programming yourself and you'll easily be able to differentiate between the two, unless you are lazy..
Well, for the first year he’d have a guaranteed total comp. I met him for a drink after he emailed me with a “no”. I think he wanted to do ML-related stuff and, in general, felt that the intellectual challenge in CS is far more obvious. Main gripe of CS people in financial markets is that there is a lot of daily grid to contend with. There is also an aspect of doing tangible productive work. So I totally understand his choice, I was just addressing the point that “if you can’t get the best people, you’re not paying enough”.
Considering cost of living, that is a tremendous sacrifice. Or is it a huge reward depending one's perspective?
I think he was staying in the NYC (there is a google campus here) so it was not a consideration. Maybe working in pure CS is far less stressful.
Oh, I wish it was that simple. Companies spend a lot of money to find the "right" candidate and still end up with "bad" employees. If you are a senior developer, you spend/waste lots of time interviewing which is not a pleasant experience (at least for a person who just wants to code). I don't think "some programming" will help you much. Even if you are able to determine that the candidate is technically sound it does NOT mean he/she will do a good job. I've seen experts that were impossible to work with ... not because they were obnoxious personalities, but rather they did not fit the culture/environment and being very good technically, did not feel the need to conform/compromise. They just split at the first opportunity. I think you need to get someone by recommendation and then find out what the person's motivation is. If it's just money, I would be hesitant. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer that the person has some additional reason and better yet some skin in the game.
It's a very different thing trying to find a dev who works well in a team environment in a regular day job vs finding someone to do one-off single person jobs like the OP is looking for. Often the lone wolves who suck at working a real job for that reason are ideal for the OPs type of job.
http://larmeeassociates.com/ If anybody is interested. About 70/hr, US based. I've worked with him before and he did well. Primarily works with futures and futures spreaders. Do your own due diligence of course.