
I have a different view on stack ranking - jamesjyu
http://theludwigs.com/2013/08/i-have-a-different-view-on-stack-ranking-than-the-spate-of-critical-microsoft-articles/
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pjungwir
As someone interested in someday building a development firm on a
partner/associates model, I really appreciated reading the different
perspective in this article. "Up or out" is controversial but in certain kinds
of companies it can make a lot of sense. It can be a way to adapt your
company's organization and culture to the reality that most programmers only
stay in a job for a few years anyway.

I think the author is right about people complaining in part because Microsoft
is not growing. A corporation is compelled to expand in order to provide
promotion opportunities to newer members.[1] If there were places for good-
but-cursed-with-better-team-mates team members to go, stack ranking wouldn't
seem such a problem.

[1] See David Maiser, Managing the Professional Service Firm, for this
principle applied to partner/associate service firms.

