Another point to consider is that there's more to people than just good or bad. Sure, some people just don't have the skills they need. But there are a lot of situations where someone can be great at one job and terrible at another depending on the fit.
The posturing about "the 1%", "A-players" and so-forth misses the idea that you want an optimal team, not magic people guaranteed to give you results.
Of course, to build an optimal team, you need a skilled organizer. So, for example, you can take someone who's otherwise low-skill, low-motivation and give them what they need to improve.
Just because it was Facebook doesn't mean the initial code was very good. Twitter's suffering a lot of technical debt from some bad initial decisions in the codebase.
I couldn't agree more. It's all about the fit with the team and their interest in the work you're hiring for.
IMO 99% of the time you hear someone say 1%, they're intentionally exaggerating (marketing) or they're clueless on the topic.
I'm a mediocre developer at best, and yet I still have a decent sized ego. I can only imagine how big my head would be if I were top 1%. You definitely wouldn't want to work with me.
Another point to consider is that there's more to people than just good or bad. Sure, some people just don't have the skills they need. But there are a lot of situations where someone can be great at one job and terrible at another depending on the fit.
The posturing about "the 1%", "A-players" and so-forth misses the idea that you want an optimal team, not magic people guaranteed to give you results.
Of course, to build an optimal team, you need a skilled organizer. So, for example, you can take someone who's otherwise low-skill, low-motivation and give them what they need to improve.