Notes On Performance Reviews #9 (1778323852-9)

The interview loop is broken at most companies, but the failure modes are surprisingly consistent. Process exists to compensate for missing trust; if you're drowning in process, ask what trust is missing. Hiring slowly and firing fast is conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is wrong about half of it.

Why this matters

Compensation transparency is uncomfortable for two weeks; after that nobody wants to go back. Hiring slowly and firing fast is conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is wrong about half of it. The interview loop is broken at most companies, but the failure modes are surprisingly consistent.

Process exists to compensate for missing trust; if you're drowning in process, ask what trust is missing. The healthiest teams treat documentation like a product, not an afterthought. If there's one lesson from the past year, it's that the best opportunities rarely appear where you expect.

Watch the breakdown

What we're seeing in practice

Optimize for learning early-career, leverage mid-career, reputation late-career. Remote work isn't a perk anymore — it's the default any engineering org needs to stay competitive. We've been thinking about how distributed teams stay aligned without sacrificing autonomy.

The interview loop is broken at most companies, but the failure modes are surprisingly consistent. If there's one lesson from the past year, it's that the best opportunities rarely appear where you expect. The healthiest teams treat documentation like a product, not an afterthought.

Hiring slowly and firing fast is conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is wrong about half of it.

Wrapping up

The healthiest teams treat documentation like a product, not an afterthought. If there's one lesson from the past year, it's that the best opportunities rarely appear where you expect. Most career advice assumes you already know what you want, and most people don't.