You're forgetting portman's first point - hire slowly. Avoiding people who, for whatever reason, can't meet expectations, should be the first priority of any or

You're forgetting portman's first point - hire slowly. Avoiding people who, for whatever reason, can't meet expectations, should be the first priority of any organization that cares about results. You can do that by aggressively pruning people who don't meet expectations, but you can also do that by doing everything you can to ensure that the wrong people don't even get in the door. I've worked in the converse - hire-quickly, fire-slowly - and I found it a horrible, hollow experience. Nobody, from the top down, gave a shit about getting anything done or learning. This is a place that refused to allow generics in Java code because people might not understand them. There were enough C players across the ranks that had moved up the ranks just by being there forever that the culture revolved around ignoring problems and not making waves, and it nearly killed the company. I bet you've heard of them. The company was AIG.