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I believe Joel Spolsky coined those terms in an essay about hiring. The reference is to American grading - letter grades are A (best), B, C, D and F.

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".

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Well, whether its derived from sports or not, I still find the terminology to be quite discriminatory. What justifies this, I wonder?

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 ..

> Its possible that everyone in the world is an A-player, given the right chance.

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.

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