It's really, really important to understand the context here. From the article:
> I was hired on at Apple in October of 1995. This was what I refer to as Apple’s circling the drain period. Maybe you remember all the doomsaying — speculation that Apple was going to be shuttering soon
Everyone in the company was presumably on edge, and expensive mistakes were starting to border not on career ending, but on _company_ ending. The difference between firing someone for making expensive mistakes and laying them off is nearly immaterial, IMO.
> I was hired on at Apple in October of 1995. This was what I refer to as Apple’s circling the drain period. Maybe you remember all the doomsaying — speculation that Apple was going to be shuttering soon
Everyone in the company was presumably on edge, and expensive mistakes were starting to border not on career ending, but on _company_ ending. The difference between firing someone for making expensive mistakes and laying them off is nearly immaterial, IMO.