Comment by tech_nofounder

I really appreciate this frank advice.

I think your discussion of business risks has best reflected the reality upon me: because he is a cofounder, he can't just be simply fired.

(Incidentally my original title was "[How] would you fire..", i.e., I have doubt about the very question.)

  The focus on programming chops underpinning your argument 
  and clawing at a little pie instead of making the pie bigger 
  suggest a narrowness of view that seems to be missing the 
  bigger picture.

Well, I'm bringing a binary/myopic-seeming view of the problem to HN, when in reality it's far from my biggest day-to-day concern. All of my time is spent "growing the pie" and even working to cultivate this engineer.

  It's an experience worth learning from.

Indeed..