"Only hiring the best" can paradoxically lower the average quality of the candidate you end up hiring, anyways. Suppose there's two ways for someone to pass a s

"Only hiring the best" can paradoxically lower the average quality of the candidate you end up hiring, anyways. Suppose there's two ways for someone to pass a strict interview: they're either a good programmer, or they're good at bullshitting you. With a higher bar, you're giving bullshitters more opportunities to bullshit you. From the perspective of a subordinate doing hiring, raising the bar makes perfect sense. You don't want to get blamed for a risky hire going bad, so you optimize for making your choice defensible rather than good. Non-hiring is also risky - it's just risky in a way that damages the company rather than the person doing the hiring.