hazing is an awful practice and I do not advocate it

having said that (and what a hell of a weaselly "but" to stick in there): I do think a barrier to entry involving at least a demonstration of humility would be beneficial to an organization.

maybe, in theory, hazing started as that.

it became something horrible and spread like mold throughout academia, instead.

organizations with roots from thousands of years ago ...

... are going to have some weeds and parasites and other such pathologia.

have a barrier to entry. lock your front door; the part of the internet you tend or are effectively a 'tenant' user of is your space, your place. and curating it is great.

and small groups curating it, carefully and gently, making sure they take care? fantastic. excellent. honestly, I wonder if all human endeavor was accomplished via the small groups.

But after you move past a small group (and here I'll just say "three dozen" and move along) and into "seems like actual business to a boomer investor" territory, you start finding problems you never had. Culture fit matters.

Culture fit stuff isn't about who does or doesn't like flavors. (If you want to pretend it is or something, trivialize it elsewhere. Assholes who trivialize do severe harm at times. Be an asshole elsewhere.)

@sydneyfalk I've always suspected that "culture fit" is just a dodge managers and HR types use to get away with discriminating against qualified candidates when the real reason would get them sued, but I'm interested in hearing your take because it sounds like you might have a different and possibly better explanation for "culture fit".