> infovores. I like knowing weird facts, and thinking through esoteric thought experiments, learning about cultural codes that are interesting but perhaps not actionable, and in general living a life of the mind.
> Some of this does help me in becoming better at my job, whether as an investor today or as an advisor in the past. The counterfactual however is murky because I also know tons of people who don’t do this at all and are also good as investors and advisors and entrepreneurs.
Not the core point here, but this is what I personally find most difficult about identify talented people.
Whatever traits make others talented will be completely illegible to me in almost every single scenario, the core traits which I'd attribute as giving me my abilities will be hardly visible or completely missing in them.
Yet in practice, best on results I've seen across many metrics, it's obvious these traits are not a prerequisite for talent nor do they even get close to guaranteeing it
I'm wondering if this book would change practices at a recruiting firm or if it's best for entrepreneurs and startups. Recruiters have to do more than identify talent. The toughest part of their job is battling bureaucracy that keeps true talent from reaching the companies that need it most.
“ If you think of talent as a spike in some core attribute, and that a lot of people have it who are often overlooked, then identifying and encouraging them are extraordinarily good things to do. "Raising their aspiration” in other words. For yourself (because it will be a far better life) and for them (because the trajectory of their life will change). And its as close a method as exists to find true relationships too, which are much scarcer in the absence of these conversations once outside, say, university.”
Currently in college and since freshman year I’ve been ”raising the ambition” of friends by sending people cool opportunities, bringing people to work together on projects, building in public on LinkedIn/Snapchat (yes Snapchat, people are glued to Snapchat!)
And really evangelizing that internships or jobs isn’t the purpose of being at college!!!
But I’m wondering you could do this and you could do it in a humble way which for most part I’ve probably done but how would you do this in a way they don’t feel like “Who are you to be thinking you could send me cool opportunities?”
At that point, a couple of things happen: 1) that person isn’t worth sending stuff too, 2) they’ll feel that but still do it and feel ”grateful” later (it’s happened), 3) they appreciate it and more importantly get excited.
For the past two years, I’ve been deeply thinking about how I can create these movements of people doing cool stuff and raise their ambitions to use think deeply about their world and their to build cool stuff.
I’ve been semi-successful but would appreciate your thoughts. That last line was thought-provoking so curious to hear what you think.
> infovores. I like knowing weird facts, and thinking through esoteric thought experiments, learning about cultural codes that are interesting but perhaps not actionable, and in general living a life of the mind.
> Some of this does help me in becoming better at my job, whether as an investor today or as an advisor in the past. The counterfactual however is murky because I also know tons of people who don’t do this at all and are also good as investors and advisors and entrepreneurs.
Not the core point here, but this is what I personally find most difficult about identify talented people.
Whatever traits make others talented will be completely illegible to me in almost every single scenario, the core traits which I'd attribute as giving me my abilities will be hardly visible or completely missing in them.
Yet in practice, best on results I've seen across many metrics, it's obvious these traits are not a prerequisite for talent nor do they even get close to guaranteeing it
“The book serves less as an instruction manual, but more like the ladder early Wittgenstein would have you throw away after climbing it.”
Beautiful line.
I'm wondering if this book would change practices at a recruiting firm or if it's best for entrepreneurs and startups. Recruiters have to do more than identify talent. The toughest part of their job is battling bureaucracy that keeps true talent from reaching the companies that need it most.
“ If you think of talent as a spike in some core attribute, and that a lot of people have it who are often overlooked, then identifying and encouraging them are extraordinarily good things to do. "Raising their aspiration” in other words. For yourself (because it will be a far better life) and for them (because the trajectory of their life will change). And its as close a method as exists to find true relationships too, which are much scarcer in the absence of these conversations once outside, say, university.”
Currently in college and since freshman year I’ve been ”raising the ambition” of friends by sending people cool opportunities, bringing people to work together on projects, building in public on LinkedIn/Snapchat (yes Snapchat, people are glued to Snapchat!)
And really evangelizing that internships or jobs isn’t the purpose of being at college!!!
But I’m wondering you could do this and you could do it in a humble way which for most part I’ve probably done but how would you do this in a way they don’t feel like “Who are you to be thinking you could send me cool opportunities?”
At that point, a couple of things happen: 1) that person isn’t worth sending stuff too, 2) they’ll feel that but still do it and feel ”grateful” later (it’s happened), 3) they appreciate it and more importantly get excited.
For the past two years, I’ve been deeply thinking about how I can create these movements of people doing cool stuff and raise their ambitions to use think deeply about their world and their to build cool stuff.
I’ve been semi-successful but would appreciate your thoughts. That last line was thought-provoking so curious to hear what you think.
Do you think the “von Neumanns” of today are hirable?