We had one of these asshole developers ... one who would - exactly as the article says - follow the spec exactly, and when point to the spec when things went wrong. He had no sympathy, because he was just doing as he was told.

We fixed him though. After one of his long rants about the spec, we told him that he was going to be tasked with writing the next spec.

All of a sudden, he had the other asshole developers pointing to his spec

It actually humbled him, and turned him into a good developer.