Locked and Loaded

I ask this question to myself when hiring: Is this candidate locked and loaded?

Someone is locked if they have a problem that they have been working on for quite a long time.

Someone is loaded if they have built up skills, and made attempts, iterated, grown, and built the experience in the area to know how to get things done in the space.

Passion is important only so far as it measures how locked the individual is. Seniority is important only as far as it measures how loaded the individual is.

Locked people are almost always great hires when you can find them(assuming you think you can keep them), but its the loaded ones that are expensive.