Hiring Decisions
edw519: Hire Candidate B.  He's almost perfect.  He has all the things going for him that are difficult or impossible to change in another person (reliable, loyal, happy, team player, accepts decision, enjoy).  His biggest weaknesses are in exactly those areas (not the most creative, limited experience) that make him teachable, and of course, you're a great teacher.  (If you're not a great teacher, you're in the wrong business).Candidate A is problematic.  You will have difficulty changing anything about him, especially those areas which are most important to change.Have an urgent project that requires Candidate A's assets?  Contract him to do that project and have Candidate B make it "repository worthy".  Include in Candidates A's contract the requirement that you ascertain that Candidate B will be able to maintain Candidate A's work before payment.  Candidate A does great creative work, Candidate B learns something new, you have a cohesive team, an emergency resource, and maintainable code, and your project comes in on time.  Everybody wins.