Yeah, that's fair. Now that you mention it, 90% of these guys where I get that red flag instinct I described are Javascript devs or wannabe Javascript devs. It's as if the JS ecosystem has driven an entire generation of developers insane
I'm in complete agreement there; I've seen a number of those. I like to ask simple questions about what they like about programming to catch some of those issues and look for a certain amount of self-understanding.
Exactly how I feel reading this thread, I had no idea PHP has changed so much.
I do understand hiring someone who has that tradesman programming ethic and is comfortable with Linux, but that’s more requiring certain positive traits.