I'm not even going to use my stock rebuttal of "correlation != causation" because in the case of #1 through #5, I doubt if we even have correlation. For every example of a good programmer for any of these 5 that OP can provide, I can provide multiple counter-examples. None of these is much of an indicator of anything.

1. How opinionated are they?

Everyone has an opinion, assholes included.

2. How much do they contribute to open source projects?

Many of the best programmers I know contribute nothing to open source because of confidentiality agreements.

3. How much do they enjoy programming?

You mean when it's fun specing something out or at 4 in the morning when everything is down?

4. Do they actually ship?

And what does it cost to maintain or fix it? There are 2 ways to find out. a. Read the source. b. Wait a year. Which would you prefer?

5. What have they mastered?

Who cares? What they do on their own time is their own business. This is an indicator of nothing.

6. How well do they communicate?

This is important for all people, for all things, so it doesn't even need to be on this list.

So, how should a non-programmer hire a programmer?

a. Become a programmer.

b. Hire a programmer to hire a programmer.

c. Punt.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1835561