Summation
blog.summation.net · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
A venture investor's blog on startups, hiring, fundraising, and investing, with short opinionated essays on building and growing companies.
What HN saysHN commenters link it for the post on rejection as a core competency; one pushes back on its habit of sorting people into A, B, and C players.
22HN people shared it
2linked it in comments
22stories submitted
210story points
13 years agolast shared
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What HN people wrote when they linked it
joe_the_user · 2009-04-11
I have a serious loathing for people who divide the world into "C players", "B players" and "A players". I have indeed worked in places where I could do things that other people couldn't. But I still feel that people fall down in performance because they aren't given things that suited their ability.
But, reading more, this so-and-so doesn't just incidentally divide people, he makes this division the foundation of his approach.
"They ("great people") only want to work with other great people. Once you recruit a few great people, you’re in a bit of a quandary. You’ll need to, from then on, only recruit other great people or the great people you do have will leave. And if you hire any good people by mistake, the great people will (directly or indirectly) want you to let the perceived mediocrity (i.e. good people) go. And letting go of someone that is good is really hard to do. So you’re stuck and that’s the rub."
(http://blog.summation.net/2008/02/the-power-of-gr.html). I actually haven't noticed that "rock star quality" makes people anything but jerks to work with. This moron's description of a great person sounds like the "brilliant" software engineer previously featured on hn who "write incredible code" and sneered at anyone who expected comments. He "only wants to work with great people". Right. Smart people who can keep their "genius bubble" intact can indeed run rings around the fools who accept their dodges.
Authentically good and pleasant people can work with many…
rinkjustice · 2011-05-14
Related article I think underscores your point: Dealing with rejection is a core competency: http://blog.summation.net/2011/02/dealing-with-rejection-is-a-core-com…