I don't care how you put it, but the fact is that people leave. I led an engineering team I was quite proud of, and days came that I had to let top engineers go

I don't care how you put it, but the fact is that people leave. I led an engineering team I was quite proud of, and days came that I had to let top engineers go. Everyone has growth arcs, and they had opportunities to seize their dream jobs working on things they'd never get to otherwise. I was proud to have felt like a stepping stone on the way to their dreams, even though it screwed the business temporarily. I learned a lot of what this article is trying to say. Calling it a bus sounds like a one in a million disaster to prepare for. Getting hired by Netflix is far more likely but just as impactful. This is written to business leaders, but I feel like if phrased differently would sound familiar and accepted by HN. Namely, don't adopt esoteric technologies no one else knows. Document production process. Never let mission critical operations exist solely in your lead engineer's head. The fact is that it's never a good time for your best people to leave, but that's inevitable on a long enough timeline. It's the duty of business leaders to be prepared for that so they don't have to resort to dirty tactics to convince them to stay.