As far as I can tell, The author is suggesting that interviews are completely worthless. He's saying that until you actually deal with someone in the workplace, you have no way of knowing how they will perform. He's saying that there is no way to effectively differentiate applicants.
This, to put it simply, is complete bullshit. It's clearly possible to remove the absolute worst applicants through interviews (i.e. can't put two lines of code together). Furthermore, how do you get absolutely zero idea of the work ethic and ability of the person you're interviewing? The only conclusion I can come to is that this author has no technical knowledge whatsoever, and therefore can't distinguish between applicants.
This author is suggesting the 'spray and pray' method of hiring: hire a new developers, fire those that don't perform in the workplace, rinse, repeat. This is pure insanity.
I really hope I'm missing something, but the author really is pretty clear: "your skill as a manager is not based on your ability to get good people into your group, but on getting bad people out. The sooner you cull weaker players, the sooner you can replace them with stronger players...and improve the human composite of your firm."
That said: he is right in that most of the hiring literature is lame if not outright stupid. I was once passed a book by upper (non-tech) management on how to interview people and it really did tout all the nonsense cliches, like the quality of the candidate's handshake. I am still boggling to this day.
1. Not being at the bottom of the barrel, I have alternatives. Why would I leave a situation for one known for hiring just about anyone and spitting them out at heavy rates? There's a name for those types of gigs: contracting jobs, and they pay for the risk.
2. The corporate culture developed through such a system must be awful. Why start making acquaintanceship with a new co-worker when even odds say they'll be gone in a few months?
3. It makes for lazy management. Sometimes, the problem is the process doesn't fit the problem. But why go through that when you can just fire them?
Finally, this could only work in the major tech hubs. I'm a friend of a friend away from most non-DOD projects in my area, and that's not terribly uncommon. Unless you're hiring straight from university, you're probably going to have a difficult time filling positions fairly soon.
