alt Hacker NewsA constant reminder: you can't have wizards without having noobs.
Every wizard was once a noob. No one is born that way, they were forged. It's in everybody's interest to train them. If they leave, you still benefit from the other companies who trained them, making the cost equal. Though if they leave, there's probably better ways to make them stay that you haven't considered (e.g. have you considered not paying new juniors more than your current junior that has been with the company for a few years? They should be able to get a pay bump without leaving)
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I think too many see it more as "every stem cell has the potential to be any [something]", but it's generally better to let them self differentiate until survivors with more potential exist.
>> A constant reminder: you can't have wizards without having noobs.
Try telling that to companies with quarterly earnings. Very few resist the urge to optimize for the short term.
I'm sure people (esp engineers) know this. But imagine you're starting a company: would you try to deploy N agents (even if shitty), or take a financial/time/legal/social risk with a new hire. When you consider short-term costs, the math just never works out in favor of real humans.