Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

"Ten days in a new job and you don't meet anyone who's dumb? That's weird," he said.

Kraus meant it as a compliment for his new colleagues and to his new employer. Every company wants to hire the smartest people possible, and Google has clearly succeeded. But you know what you get when you get too many smart people in one room? You get the corporate equivalent of the U.S. Olympic basketball team.

Think about it: there can only be one smartest person in every room. There are dozens of trophy hires and incredibly smart, entrepreneurial minds buried inside Google who are fast-becoming frustrated with their inability to accomplish anything. And while Google motors along, minting money with its AdSense and AdWords programs, these brilliant minds are getting antsy.

Quoth CNNMoney. I am not sure I buy the logic here. Sure, it makes perfect sense for smart people who have a 7 figure bank account to want to strike out on their own and try something different. I am not sure the "US Olympic basketball team" is the right metaphor here, though.

I don't know many tech people who *want* to be the smartest person in the room. Being around people who can help drive your growth as an engineer is an advantage in and of itself. Moreover, Google doesn't seem to be having problems getting more talented people every day. The number of high-profile defections TO Google seem to more that quadruple the number of high-profile departures.