Where I worked, stack-ranking was a way to get rid of people who were non-compliant with management bullshit, and also to punish those who took on the technically difficult or risky work. So, if you worked on a project that didn’t achieve its goals because the requirements were inconsistent with the laws of physics (real example, too bad I can’t share details), you’d be punished, while someone who’s a predictable performer at a simple, low-risk task would be spared. With (dis)incentives like that, you can guess the result.

Also, note that Andreesen is a big investor in AI, so he would say that, wouldn’t he? Gotta keep that bubble inflated!