[picks_at_nits]

That might be a red-herring. When times are good, people get positive reinforcement for doing bad things. Thing might hire the next programmer, and the Carpenter gets the next job, and everybody assumes that the right best way to conduct an interview is for both people to “flip the bozo bit” on each other as soon as possible.

Then when it becomes hard to find good people, Thing suffers because they are too quick to reject people based on one answer. And if the Carpenter finds there are few jobs that suit his criteria, he has trouble getting one with the style of answer he tries to jam into every question.

That’s a bit of a metaphor for how many (but not all) companies become internal shit-shows in tech. They get a lot of positive feedback (raising money, adulation from HN) for their tech, but meanwhile are terrible managers.

It takes great discipline (and possible great mentoring) to say to yourself, “things are going well, but what am I doing wrong that I just happen to be getting away with?"

[nostrademons]

You bring up a good point, but it's not one supported by the text of the story. Perhaps that's why it's a good story: everybody reads into it their personal experiences and assumes it means what they want it to mean.

FWIW, the meaning I took away from it is "Well, this is a cool way of looking at things. Some people will run away screaming, some people will appreciate it. If you want a happy life, find the people who appreciate it and don't worry so much about the people who don't see things your way."