Very true, and I didn't mean to tar all groups with the same brush. There are plenty of great teams at MS which avoid these dynamics. However there are also p

Very true, and I didn't mean to tar all groups with the same brush. There are plenty of great teams at MS which avoid these dynamics. However there are also plenty of people gaming the system and I think if you look at Microsoft's overall lack of success -- and the number of passionate creative people who have left -- "the curve" and how it's applied have a lot to do with it.