Ryan Peterman

I mean, one of the challenges actually PyTorch had with hiring was actually the perception that PyTorch held a higher bar.

People would be like, oh, I've heard you guys are actually like much tougher about promotions, and I'd be like, yeah, honestly, we are.

Honestly, R8s are as good as you're going to get anywhere in this whole world.

And if you want to be the best engineer you're ever going to be in your entire life, you should work with them.

But R8s probably are better than the 10s in a couple of other teams.

If you want to be a 10, you maybe should be in that team instead.

And I think for some people, that would really turn them off.

But I think part of this was, again, the agency and selection mechanism, as I think

PyTorch selected people who actually just loved engineering as engineering.

And then there were people who were willing to tolerate slightly fewer promotions.

And ironically, what I think was interesting, though, was that it became a bit of like...

magic thing that kind of turned out well, which is because people perceived PyTorch to hold such a high bar, it was much easier for us to convince people outside of PyTorch that actually our people were ready for 8 or 9 or 10.

Whereas other teams, when they tried to make this argument, they're like, oh, but you guys are not well known for holding a high bar.

Maybe you guys are just overselling these people.

But in PyTorch, people were like, oh yeah, you guys hired our guy and thought he was pretty bad, so actually we think you probably are credible.

And I think that, like,

Again, it's like in the short term doesn't actually accumulate as fast, but I think in the long term does have a ton of benefits.

Whether it is the absolute like compensation maximizing algorithm, I'm not sure.

And that's where I have a little bit like torn up torn.

But for me, I was also like I was willing to get 20% less compensation to be in a place that I was more proud of.