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Business & Money · Tip

Pavel Durov's Rule on B Players and Engineering Productivity

Why removing one underperformer beats hiring more engineers to fix delays

From the Xiry library · Updated 11 October 2026

Transcribed startup management advice from Telegram founder Pavel Durov explaining why adding headcount often backfires when a project stalls. He argues that underperforming team members demotivate top talent and generate friction, and that the root gap between performers is usually the ability to sustain deep focus on a single problem.

How it works

1) Counterintuitive result: firing an engineer can raise productivity — e.g. two Android engineers behind schedule; the instinct is to hire a third, but the real problem was one person 'who created more issues and problems than he solved'. 'In tech projects you tend to think you just throw more people in and things get solved miraculously.' 2) Working with a B Player is demotivating: A Players can tell, and they feel unable to realize their full potential 'because of this person working next to you (or pretending to work next to you)'. 3) What separates B from A: not laziness, not experience — natural ability and persistence; in 90% of cases it's 'the inability to focus on one task for an extended period of time'.

What it's for

  • Diagnose why an engineering project is falling behind despite team size
  • Evaluate whether to downsize or replace low performers before adding headcount
  • Identify core performance issues related to attention span and deep focus in technical hires

Key points

  • Counterintuitive staffing: firing a net-negative engineer often speeds up delivery
  • Explains how B players directly demotivate and slow down high performers
  • Identifies prolonged, sustained focus on one task as the primary differentiator in top talent

Pricing

Free

Details

Type
Tip
Category
Business & Money
Topic
Hiring & Team Management
Open source
No
For
Founders, engineering managers, and technical team leads
Tags
management, hiring, engineering, startups, productivity

Why it was saved

  • @StartupArchive_, 20 October 2025: A hiring/firing principle for founders and managers, kept as quotable startup advice.

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