I think most commenters misread 'from scratch'. The author is talking about ideas not about code.
So even developers who can build things from scratch use frameworks when needed.
So even developers who can build things from scratch use frameworks when needed.
This was inspired by a lecture I gave to some entrepreneurs on Friday (I put a link to the slides in the post) - these folks are people with business / design backgrounds who are trying to figure out how to realize some idea they've been working on. It was part of a larger course they were in - my role was just to give them the CTO / technical co-founder's perspective on what to look for in building their early tech team, picking a technology stack, etc...
I ended up really having an intense discussion with them on "finding the developer to implement an idea from nothing" and tried to capture that in the blog post.
So one trait a from scratch developer must show, is being a toolsmith. Most startups do not have the time to build everything from scratch. Instead they have to pick tools to solve their problem. A toolsmith can quickly validate if a tool is suited for the task, and is able to create new tools if necessary.
So there are few things one can check before hiring a developer: A toolsmith published his tools, frameworks or libraries. A bughunter contributed to 3rd party projects. ...
Or in short: A developer who did things from scratch, will be proud showing them. An this will show where his strong and weak points are. ( e.g. my weak point is design )