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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

A colleague I worked with at a dying startup called this the “Dead Sea effect.” All the choosers chose to leave and all that was left was salt.

Not sure if that’s an industry term or not.

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I've definitely seen this happening more than once, so to me this is a thing for real. The people you you'd want to stay leave, and the people you'd want to leave stick forever.

I always heard it along the lines of "The elves have sailed into the west."

You're probably thinking of "The elves have left Middle Earth"? That's slightly different -- it's a reference from this blogpost[0] which is talking about bean-counters taking over from focus on product, i.e., basically fiddling more with costs than trying to innovate to improve revenues.

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

Yep. I worked as a consultant in the Valley. Sometimes, folks wanted me to work at these dying shops. I was always hesitant because they're not fun places but they do have more technical and political challenges than elsewhere.

Not very well known, but not new.

http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...

Seems like a mistake to assume ability/cost of getting a new job is indicative of making positive contributions. A lot of hire-ability in Tech is based on brand (university or employer) and network. Tech is actually a very snobby industry. Where as it-least in Wall-St or Sales you are tied to P&L

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