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371 points greggyb | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.744s | source
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FuriouslyAdrift ◴[] No.41983561[source]
Everyone forgetting about Lisa Brummel and "stack ranking"?

That nearly ruined Microsoft...

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft-ditches-syst...

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fsckboy ◴[] No.41983931[source]
"grading on a curve" is a good idea, and if athletics wasn't run that way, nobody would watch.

that doesn't mean it's easy to implement, manage, or impossible to game, or that it plays nice wrt human factors, but to attack the core idea as essentially wrong is anti math, science, and rationality.

Microsoft always suffered from rewarding egotists and political animals over people who did actual work.

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lesuorac ◴[] No.41984436[source]
Athletics is an actual competition where the expectation is that "you win".

When you hire 12 baristas are they competing to make the most coffees or is their job to handle customer's orders? If their job isn't to compete with each other then don't stack rank them. Use other metrics like #of incorrect orders or w/e and decide what you think they should've done and if they did more than that give them a bonus. If they do less then maybe you need a new employee.

> Microsoft always suffered from rewarding egotists and political animals over people who did actual work.

That has nothing to do with grading on a curve. You can assign people to the top of a curve based on "egotist" criteria or based on "work". Nothing about a curve or stack ranking requires it to be based on "real work".

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randomdata ◴[] No.41985489[source]
> When you hire 12 baristas are they competing to make the most coffees or is their job to handle customer's orders?

Both? Handling customer orders is how the sport is played, but at the same time they are competing for the most points (money) in that gameplay.

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1. krisoft ◴[] No.41986612[source]
That's great. If you regularly fire the barista who brings in the least amount of money then you will find that nobody sane will take the slower shifts.

Because how much money a barista brings in is mostly a factor of how busy the coffeeshop is. Which is largely a factor of what time the clock shows, and that's not something a barista will be able to influence. (baring circumstances where a barista is so incompetent that costumers walk out of the shop.)