I think his point is even more basic, but perhaps more depressing: Finding people who are decent and competent can be hard enough, so you have to cover that min

I think his point is even more basic, but perhaps more depressing: Finding people who are decent and competent can be hard enough, so you have to cover that minimum bar before you can talk about "talent". Given his industry and as he cites in the post, he probably faces the problem of lots of people who claim to be "writers" more than the average HN user finds people who claim to be "programmers".