Yeah, good point. If productivity equates to value creation then hackers are more productive. If productivity equates to what software management can measure, then developers are more productive.
I’m making a pithy statement about the difference hackers and developers
I gotta say that your distinction between 'hackers' and 'developers' is pretty ill-informed - just out of curiosity, have you primarily worked in start-ups?
Productive teams are primarily hackers solving larger problems. This stuff gets in the way, causing the team to morph into developers instead.