I don't think anyone publishes statistics on this, but the thing you have to understand about Silicon Valley is that it runs on reputation. Skills are commonpla

I don't think anyone publishes statistics on this, but the thing you have to understand about Silicon Valley is that it runs on reputation. Skills are commonplace. H1-Bs have skills. 20-year-olds have skills. Instead, people get the good jobs based on what they can force other people to say about them, not based on what they can do. Silicon Valley is also a place where success forgives all sins, full of people with very little in the way of scruples, and where vendettas are generated all the time over the smallest shit. This isn't limited to Silicon Valley. In any business where reputation makes the difference between 7-figure salaries and unemployability, you're going to have people who'll stop at nothing to "fix" reputation problems. That being said, these things usually don't run all the way, because even Silicon Valley people don't kill lightly, so there's a series of escalations before it gets to that, and most people aren't willing to defend their vendettas with their lives.