Nor despite my analogies does this apply only to software developers

… Nor despite my analogies does this apply only to software developers. One team I worked on lost a long term "technical writer" (that wasn't their full time work but it was a role they filled for that team). This person was the best person I've ever known at documenting things. And still the team reeled at losing them. Even with all the documentation they left behind, knowing what was documented, where and how recently and all sorts of metadata that wasn't captured in the documentation itself went with them when they left. Years later their documentation was still useful, but no one was anywhere near their level of encyclopedic knowledge of it all. To use an analogy, the New York Yankees perform the best when they focus on building up their roster from their farm system. Long tenured players mentor the new ones, and a cohesive team forms that operates as more than the sum of its parts. They perform the worst when success and money take control and they try to hire "all-stars" away from other teams. The intangibles just aren't there, or aren't as strong. A good company is the same. …