On talent

The job description Bezos wrote for his very first employee said, “You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems, and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible.

What people think are winning backgrounds: - Ivy League grad - good grades - after school activities Actual winning backgrounds: - competitive ranked gamers - flipping stuff on eBay - door to... See more

How the Greatest Entrepreneurs Hire (h/t David Senra)

• Steve Jobs stated that each new hire became a percentage of the company, so why wouldn’t you take the time to find all A-players?

• David Ogilvy, as an already established businessman, would see advertisements that he liked and then cold call the person who made the ad — this is how he sourced his

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What is “talent?” Well, I suppose it’s the ability to do that which is excellent (that which astounds, amazes, and so on). It’s a bit circular, really: if you can write something that astounds, that is, de facto, proof of talent. Is there a way to predict it, to diagnostically spot it early, and issue some sort of reassuring certification, that one... See more