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Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

brandonhays.com

11–20 of 39 posts

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#11
post #7
post #5

Because we as humans will never escape the subconscious constraints and biases of a pack ordered society, it's woven into our very being.

Beware of casting a float to a boolean. Yes, every group of humans has some degree of toxic competition and hierarchy, but some much more than others. It makes sense to look at the ones that have less, and ask what they are doing right and how to emulate it.

> Beware of casting a float to a boolean

That is a great expression and I'm stealing it!

Sometimes it feels like most of my life is spent trying to teach others to cast booleans to floats. :)

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#12
I want a high bar for my team, but a high bar that matters to what the business needs.

I want - passion, compassion, drive, curiosity, etc. That's where principles are always important for a company to show what is important as a high bar to your company. The goal is to hire the best people to accelerate your team not your ego which I think is the point of the article. In other words I agree.

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#14
post #8

My boss just dropped the offer salary for a new candidate by 25% because they weren't from a top tier school...I really hope they still accept b/c I _really_ need the help! I know that's a bit different than what the article is talking about but still similar reasoning. They were the strongest performer on every metric we have and for no other reason than the name of the school they did their graduate work at, they a…

Do you think may candidates would accept such a blatant bait and switch?

>dropped the offer salary for a new candidate

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#15
post #8

My boss just dropped the offer salary for a new candidate by 25% because they weren't from a top tier school...I really hope they still accept b/c I _really_ need the help! I know that's a bit different than what the article is talking about but still similar reasoning. They were the strongest performer on every metric we have and for no other reason than the name of the school they did their graduate work at, they a…

That’s disgusting. It also feels a little bit sabotage-y, especially as you need the help.

I’d be questioning why I still want to work for a company/people who would make those kinds of decisions...

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#16
post #8

My boss just dropped the offer salary for a new candidate by 25% because they weren't from a top tier school...I really hope they still accept b/c I _really_ need the help! I know that's a bit different than what the article is talking about but still similar reasoning. They were the strongest performer on every metric we have and for no other reason than the name of the school they did their graduate work at, they a…

[deleted]

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#17

I always assumed A player meant worked 60-100 hrs per week, but they expected you(not directly) to write 40-50 on your times sheet. And only paid for 30. But, don't worry your changing the world.

> But, don't worry your changing the world By creating a new innovative way to deliver ads to consumers.

Like it or not, economy needs ads.

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#18

If someone does not have any domain knowledge they default to looking for: A) an authority or B) a demonstration/display. authority = school, newspaper, official, parent, etc... demonstration = performance, app, book, video, etc...

A demonstration is often a very very good indicator even if you have a lot of domain knowledge. When a candidate shows me something they've built I can gain a lot of perspective into how they think and work by asking questions about it.

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#19

I always assumed A player meant worked 60-100 hrs per week, but they expected you(not directly) to write 40-50 on your times sheet. And only paid for 30. But, don't worry your changing the world.

> But, don't worry your changing the world By creating a new innovative way to deliver ads to consumers.

I agree wholeheartedly. My guess would be one of:

- reverse causation fallacy: People who change the world (scientists, big entrepreneurs, politicians) often work a lot of overtime. Since I work overtime, I must be changing the world.

- cognitive dissonance: Surely I wouldn't be working overtime if my work weren't important!

Re: Your “high bar” is wrecking your team

#20
post #3

Our best devs are consistently people who don’t have CS degrees and have good creativity, patience, curiosity, and who have some code to show that isn’t buzzword-chasing nonsense.

Another engineer at my company and I realized that most absurdly good engineers we know have art backgrounds (or just consider themselves artistic / creative).

Our theory is that artists are used to working with the limitations of their medium and enjoying the challenge.

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