I think its ironic that you defend all these perks and team strengthening outings yet you scoff many times at the idea that people looking for balance are not right for your teams, and you insinuate they are weak.
What these outings and perks provide is a certain level of balance.
Additionally, I think that one can find so much inspiration for innovation in areas that are totally unrelated to the tech magic they may focus on at work.
I find inspiration and ideas in the most amazing places, almost all of which come from talking to non-technical people about what it is they do and seeing amazing opportunity to change the way they work, fill a void in an industry or create something based on a need.
limiting your feedback loop to your small, albeit talented pool of resources, is still a limited feedback loop.
Jason, I have a challenge for you: Have some team, or staff of at least five people take a vacation off-grid: NO (Smart)phone, NO email, NO Internet at all - get them all a moleskin notebook and 5 days of staying out of the office, but out of their homes with no access to the online world and challenge them to come back with some ideas that were formulated from their talking to, interacting with and observing the world around them. (They can use voice-phone only for family)
They need journal the week by hand - and none can interact with eachother.
Have them return with the goal of a list of goals/ideas/opportunities.
I think this would reveal a lot about the team and your work ethos.
