There is a cost to doing work that does not adhere to your beliefs about the Web.

Sometimes it’s worth the cost. Sometimes it’s not.

One of the best ways to find great talent is to be open with the work you’re doing. Write about it, speak about it, share the successes and the failures. If you do this, the people who share your vision will be attracted to what you’re doing. And, when you are hiring, they’ll be ready.

The challenge this presents is that doing real workin the real world is about more than doing the best work possible. It’s about doing the best work possible in the context of the project. Unfortunately, that often means compromise. And every compromise you make can eat away at your culture.

I used to believe that culture was simply about hiring the right people. Now I know it’s more than that. It’s also the difference between what you say you are and what you actually are—the size of the compromises you choose to make.

There will always be forces pulling you away from what you believe about the Web. Begging for parallax, for fullscreen background videos, for scroll-jacking. There will always be a claim that prioritizing the user is “killing the soul” of the Web. And there will always be a time to compromise—a time when the right thing is not the right thing.

Just remember, there is a cost.

So, when the compromises come calling, measure the cost and decide carefully. And, whatever you do, make sure you can always tell the compromise from the vision.