There are un-fun things to work on in life and if you are going to hire a "non-superstar" and have them work on a non-critical part of your company, it's not th

There are un-fun things to work on in life and if you are going to hire a "non-superstar" and have them work on a non-critical part of your company, it's not that bad. If someone has a outside passion - say sailing and wants to just get a job to help them pursue it, more power to them if you can adequately utilize the talents in 30-40 hours versus a powerhouse 90 hr die-hard talent. Personally, I find fulfillment in my 40-80 hr "day" job and then go pursue other fun activities; a lot of my (especially engineering - non-cs/ee) friends want a 30-40 hr job and some play power, others trade stocks, others play sports rabidly every evening - you must respect the personal motivations and find a way to align it with your organization / startup, if you cannot, then yeah, it's done.