4 ms·

What the heck is an "A-Player" or a "B-Player"? I think this is another American sporting term that has no place in the technology field, personally .. is it n

What the heck is an "A-Player" or a "B-Player"? I think this is another American sporting term that has no place in the technology field, personally .. is it not discrimination wrapped up in a pop-cult package?

AsymetricCom 13y ago
How else are we going to sell the next trendy bullshit to investors? Get your head in the game!
thatthatis 13y ago
In American education an "A" grade is 90% or higher, a "B" grade is 80-90% and a "C" grade is 70-80% "A" player usually means someone in the top tier academically or professionally. As far as I know it isn't used in American sporting.
- caoilte 13y ago
  Wow, your tests must be easy.
  - forgottenpass 13y ago
    That was the quick and easy answer. Testing that doesn't expect mastery of the material will, of course, work differently.
  - phamilton 13y ago
    C means satisfactory. B means above average. A means exceptional. The expectation is a 70%. It is expected that the average student will get almost 1/3 wrong. However, recent grade inflation has skewed the original meaning of these definitions
  - caw 13y ago
    Or there's a curve so you fit each letter to 10% of participants. Generally it's a bell curve though so most people end up in C, since that's "average" or "satisfactory". I had a few classes in college, where in a very 1984-esque fashion, failing (<60% correct) was passing. You just had to fail less than everyone else.
bartonfink 13y ago
I believe Joel Spolsky coined those terms in an essay about hiring. The reference is to American grading - letter grades are A (best), B, C, D and F. He didn't, that I recall, define where the difference between an A and a B player was, so it's kind of a difficult metaphor to apply. It's really got nothing to do with any American sport that I know of - those terms would be more like "bench player", "starter" or "utility player".
- fit2rule 13y ago
  Well, whether its derived from sports or not, I still find the terminology to be quite discriminatory. What justifies this, I wonder? Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance. But with rampant discrimination going on, I doubt the chance is ever granted in a company that uses this terminology to manage itself ..
  - mdwrigh2 13y ago
    > Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance. Perhaps. Perhaps they just need more training, or experience, or... But the fact is, at a given point in time, some developers are more productive than others.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
bjustin 13y ago
An "A-Player" is someone amazing at what they do and never satisfied with the status quo. These are the kind of people that crank out an MVP that will need to be replaced as soon as you start to scale. They are (generally) terrible in teams, but necessary to keep a company from becoming complacent and thus slowly dying. A "B-Player" is someone competent. These are the people that do most of the work to make a solid product. A sizable company needs to be 80%+ B-players to be stable in the long term. On the other hand, a company of only B-players is prone to disruption from those better able to respond to the market. "C-Players" are the people who don't contribute much, or even drag down the company. They may be incompetent or have a poisonous attitude. Too many C-players will doom a company to failure. These definitions are how "A-Player" and so on are described to big corporations, so YMMV with startups and small companies.
alan_cx 13y ago
I see the answers given, and have to wonder if they know we are talking people and not slabs of warm meat.
- dictum 13y ago
  USDA Prime beef won't complain when it's rewarded for the 60-hour work weeks with a firing.
drewhk 13y ago
It's a marketing term invented by companies for recruiting. If you think about it, A-Player simply means: "the people who we decided to hire". The idea is brilliant: - If you are rejected, it is your fault. You are not good enough. - If you are fired, it is you fault. You are no longer good enough. - While you are working there, it boosts your ego, because you are "one of the elite", a "no compromise high-performer", a "rockstar" an "A-Player", etc. and you feel no empathy for the fired/rejected ones -- "they were not good enough, but I am!". And of course you do everything to remain employed, since that is what makes you the cool kid. Of course other products are marketed in a similar fashion, by artificially creating a feel of "exclusivism" -- it is just a bit harder to recognize it in the software world, since it is designed to push our own "secret nerd desire button" (feeling mentally superior to others).

AsymetricCom 13y ago

How else are we going to sell the next trendy bullshit to investors? Get your head in the game!

thatthatis 13y ago

In American education an "A" grade is 90% or higher, a "B" grade is 80-90% and a "C" grade is 70-80% "A" player usually means someone in the top tier academically or professionally. As far as I know it isn't used in American sporting.

caoilte 13y ago
Wow, your tests must be easy.
- forgottenpass 13y ago
  That was the quick and easy answer. Testing that doesn't expect mastery of the material will, of course, work differently.
- phamilton 13y ago
  C means satisfactory. B means above average. A means exceptional. The expectation is a 70%. It is expected that the average student will get almost 1/3 wrong. However, recent grade inflation has skewed the original meaning of these definitions
- caw 13y ago
  Or there's a curve so you fit each letter to 10% of participants. Generally it's a bell curve though so most people end up in C, since that's "average" or "satisfactory". I had a few classes in college, where in a very 1984-esque fashion, failing (<60% correct) was passing. You just had to fail less than everyone else.

bartonfink 13y ago

I believe Joel Spolsky coined those terms in an essay about hiring. The reference is to American grading - letter grades are A (best), B, C, D and F. He didn't, that I recall, define where the difference between an A and a B player was, so it's kind of a difficult metaphor to apply. It's really got nothing to do with any American sport that I know of - those terms would be more like "bench player", "starter" or "utility player".

fit2rule 13y ago
Well, whether its derived from sports or not, I still find the terminology to be quite discriminatory. What justifies this, I wonder? Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance. But with rampant discrimination going on, I doubt the chance is ever granted in a company that uses this terminology to manage itself ..
- mdwrigh2 13y ago
  > Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance. Perhaps. Perhaps they just need more training, or experience, or... But the fact is, at a given point in time, some developers are more productive than others.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

bjustin 13y ago

An "A-Player" is someone amazing at what they do and never satisfied with the status quo. These are the kind of people that crank out an MVP that will need to be replaced as soon as you start to scale. They are (generally) terrible in teams, but necessary to keep a company from becoming complacent and thus slowly dying. A "B-Player" is someone competent. These are the people that do most of the work to make a solid product. A sizable company needs to be 80%+ B-players to be stable in the long term. On the other hand, a company of only B-players is prone to disruption from those better able to respond to the market. "C-Players" are the people who don't contribute much, or even drag down the company. They may be incompetent or have a poisonous attitude. Too many C-players will doom a company to failure. These definitions are how "A-Player" and so on are described to big corporations, so YMMV with startups and small companies.

alan_cx 13y ago

I see the answers given, and have to wonder if they know we are talking people and not slabs of warm meat.

dictum 13y ago
USDA Prime beef won't complain when it's rewarded for the 60-hour work weeks with a firing.

drewhk 13y ago

It's a marketing term invented by companies for recruiting. If you think about it, A-Player simply means: "the people who we decided to hire". The idea is brilliant: - If you are rejected, it is your fault. You are not good enough. - If you are fired, it is you fault. You are no longer good enough. - While you are working there, it boosts your ego, because you are "one of the elite", a "no compromise high-performer", a "rockstar" an "A-Player", etc. and you feel no empathy for the fired/rejected ones -- "they were not good enough, but I am!". And of course you do everything to remain employed, since that is what makes you the cool kid. Of course other products are marketed in a similar fashion, by artificially creating a feel of "exclusivism" -- it is just a bit harder to recognize it in the software world, since it is designed to push our own "secret nerd desire button" (feeling mentally superior to others).