For a period of time, we had a handful of brilliant engineers. I can't really say that I was one of them back then, but I can tell brilliance when I see it. A

For a period of time, we had a handful of brilliant engineers. I can't really say that I was one of them back then, but I can tell brilliance when I see it. All three of them ended up leaving within two months of each other, and one of them whom I knew personally told me they left because of that sort of micromanagement. That person works for Apple now, so it's for the best anyway. But once the people with experience and talent left the oppressive environment, that left the more junior engineers who couldn't realistically pick up the slack. I think you're right not only in that it will eventually become counterproductive, but it will also cause a company to simply lose its best employees.