“Most things in life, the dynamic range between average and the best is at most two to one… In software, and it used to be the case in hardware too, the difference between average and the best is fifty to one, maybe a hundred to one.”
Dynamic Range
From the interview Steve Jobs gave Robert Cringely in 1995 for the PBS series Triumph of the Nerds, later released in fuller form as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview. To set up the contrast, Jobs reaches for ordinary jobs: in New York, “an average taxi cab driver versus the best taxi cab driver” gets you there only “maybe 30% faster.” (Transcribed from the filmed interview.)
A cab sits in the same traffic on the same streets whoever is driving, so even the best can only do a little better. That ceiling holds across most work, which is why a shortfall in talent can usually be covered with more people: ten average drivers still complete about ten average trips. Software is the rare job with no such ceiling, so a 50-to-1 gap can’t be closed by adding bodies. The few who are great aren’t a third faster than everyone else; they do things the rest can’t do at all.
Jobs draws the consequence in the next breath: he built his success on “finding these truly gifted people” and “not settling for B and C players.” When the range is that wide, keeping the hiring bar high isn’t one management lever among several. It’s the job.