i strongly believe in a diverse workforce, especially in large companies, diverse workforces often times mean better results especially since problems today are even more complicated. having said that, i totally understand and have seen some of the bad behaviors you mentioned like putting people down, insulting others, this can be quite toxic. i'm not saying i condone any of those types of behaviors because i certainly don't, but i think asshole labeling can be quite arbitrary, e.g. someone that's terse and seemingly abrasive may just be more direct/candid, is he/she an asshole? what i'm saying is that bad behaviors should not be condoned, but these individuals definitely have value to companies and can create beautiful work, and we shouldn't reject them based on certain labeling because the labeling is quite frankly discrimination and should equally not be tolerated. one person that particularly stands out in my mind is linus torvalds. asshole? for sure, by almost all counts of your definition of an asshole. given that he's improved lately and has admitted his issues, but he's still an asshole by my books :) would you want anyone else working on linux kernel which requires having a lot of different contributors working in large teams, probably not.