All of this talk of A, B, C players is useless.
Because the term is still not well defined. Or it is misapplied.
Here’s a question that nobody is asking: is it possible to create an A player out of a C player?
🤔
Coming from a strong running background, I hands down 100% have seen this play out more than once! Either with a competitor or a peer who I wrote off as slow, until they found a great coach or set of mentors and became a podium runner.
I don’t make the mistake of writing anyone off anymore, that was an amateur move from my reckless youth.
In tech, the default response to the above question is a closed minded No…but ironically, A players are the type to answer Yes to this question – their open mind is what makes them the best.
Once the above flaw in our collective echo chamber is addressed, we can progress.
Next we can ask, why are we collectively judging A and C players based on opportunity and circumstance, or conversely a lack of both?
To clarify, a C player might be a superstar in waiting. A C player might have been forced through circumstance to take the first job that came at a shitty agency where they’re hired to create fast and low quality hacks on button alignments. After a few years, they’ve taken many jobs at shitty agencies because they’re searching for an environment where they can improve their craft, work on algorithms or strong architecture or design patterns, all of the stuff that would make them a better developer. Except ironically they keep getting denied these roles due to lack of experience, because all they’re doing all day is hacking shitty button alignments. They might try to compensate this by doing side projects and educating themselves at night (but again, only ones with the greatest opportunity). But this is futile when going up against someone with Google on the resume.
To put it lightly, in tech, we really suck at defining, and finding, these A players. In running, there’s no denial that potential is meaningful. That’s why running, and most other sports, have really nailed down the art of not sucking at finding A players.
In previous generations, I hear legends that they remedied this obtuse shortcoming through something they called “training”. If you’re an A player hiring team, you would know about this…so where are these A player hiring teams? 😏
I hear lots of empty talk now that every single company is an A player team only hiring A players. Statistical improbability aside, for the above reasons, I have rarely seen evidence of these companies existing.
