What the heck is an "A-Player" or a "B-Player"? I think this is another American sporting term that has no place in the technology field, personally .. is it not discrimination wrapped up in a pop-cult package?
- If you are rejected, it is your fault. You are not good enough.
- If you are fired, it is you fault. You are no longer good enough.
- While you are working there, it boosts your ego, because you are "one of the elite", a "no compromise high-performer", a "rockstar" an "A-Player", etc. and you feel no empathy for the fired/rejected ones -- "they were not good enough, but I am!". And of course you do everything to remain employed, since that is what makes you the cool kid.
Of course other products are marketed in a similar fashion, by artificially creating a feel of "exclusivism" -- it is just a bit harder to recognize it in the software world, since it is designed to push our own "secret nerd desire button" (feeling mentally superior to others).
A "B-Player" is someone competent. These are the people that do most of the work to make a solid product. A sizable company needs to be 80%+ B-players to be stable in the long term. On the other hand, a company of only B-players is prone to disruption from those better able to respond to the market.
"C-Players" are the people who don't contribute much, or even drag down the company. They may be incompetent or have a poisonous attitude. Too many C-players will doom a company to failure.
These definitions are how "A-Player" and so on are described to big corporations, so YMMV with startups and small companies.
"A" player usually means someone in the top tier academically or professionally.
As far as I know it isn't used in American sporting.
The expectation is a 70%. It is expected that the average student will get almost 1/3 wrong.
However, recent grade inflation has skewed the original meaning of these definitions
I had a few classes in college, where in a very 1984-esque fashion, failing (<60% correct) was passing. You just had to fail less than everyone else.
He didn't, that I recall, define where the difference between an A and a B player was, so it's kind of a difficult metaphor to apply. It's really got nothing to do with any American sport that I know of - those terms would be more like "bench player", "starter" or "utility player".
Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance. But with rampant discrimination going on, I doubt the chance is ever granted in a company that uses this terminology to manage itself ..
Perhaps. Perhaps they just need more training, or experience, or... But the fact is, at a given point in time, some developers are more productive than others.