Running a small team of developers have made me realize that be successful as a team we all have to be a good thinker. We are so much stuck to pedigree, experience that we miss out on free-thinking and creativity.
The beauty of software development is that a solution can be made in many ways. Freethinkers result in solving a challenging task or building something from scratch in a much elegant way.
Always hire free thinkers over code monkeys or pedigree stickers.