Joel Spolsky is a well known writer and programming guru-entrepreneur.  In this article, he makes a good point on what people to hire ( get only smart people, and people who can get things done — and he make a clear example and distinction), and generally how to hire and conduct interviews plus a whole lot of other great tips.

There are two kinds of businesses ( there are more, but this is rather a simpler way to analyze this) that you can classify - businesses like legal, film-making or software development where getting the best people becomes essential - because a great programmer can do the job that a hundred programmers cannot do, or a great salesman can sell a hundred times more than a salesman who does not have a clue), and businesses like Walmart or McDonalds where you have very well defined brands and processes where getting more quantity people ( rather than quality people) is good enough - in short, put a person in front of the McDonalds counter, and whether he is PhD, or is three times smarter, he can only sell or do so much more than the averaged well trained counter clerk.

But no matter how smart, you absolutely want to get people who can get things done.  I must admit that most of my frustrations the last few years ( and I reckon also most of the people/entrepreneurs I know ) are working with people who can talk, and seemingly smart, but who probably finds it a challenge to get some of the simplest things done.  As Joel aptly points out — there are people out there who can mesmerized an audience for three hours on the theory of branding and marketing, but who seemingly would be lost ( and take days to resolve ) when confronted with a customer who wants to return a product that is out of warranty.

Although some parts of it tends to be technical ( and after noting that Joel is speaking from the point of view that his business is looking for just a handful of great great people per year)  then you should absolutely read this.  But even if you don’t, he makes excellent references that you can remember.

After all, all things being equal, it is always better to get people who are smarter, and knows how to get things done.