> I'd rather hire someone who knows exactly why it's O(n^2)

"How do we satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources?" - economics to the rescue again.

Everyone would love to hire Linus Torvalds for that matter, but there are plenty of programming jobs where you don't really need to, or don't want to, or can't spend that kind of money. There are plenty of useful, productive positions for people who aren't up on their O notation. The important thing is to be clear what kind of person you're looking for.