---
title: Hiring and judging character
#feed_description: 
author: Issa Rice
creation_date: 2015-06-21
last_major_revision_date: 2015-06-21
language: English
status: notes
# accepts "CC0", "CC-BY", or "CC-BY-SA"
license: CC-BY
tags: judging, character, hiring, Yishan Wong, talent
#aliases: 
---

- <http://blog.givewell.org/2013/08/29/we-cant-simply-buy-capacity/>
- the connection between hiring people for a job and judging the
  character of people fascinates me (e.g. for finding good friends, or
  for romantic relationships).
- both are clearly important: you need to hire people to get tasks done,
  and you want to find good friends/partner(s)
- both can take quite a bit of commitment to accurately judge
- both can end disastrously
- in both scenarios, there can be multiple people doing the judging, so
  there can be some gossip among those "in the know"
- sometimes it can be *really hard* to tell the difference between
  someone who is an *extremely* good fit, and someone who is a terrible
  fit.
- <https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-distinguish-10X-software-engineers-from-the-rest>

    - Yishan Wong:

        > Look to referrals of referrals.  Look for the best person
        > according to the best person according to the best person you
        > know (yes, that's two levels).  If there is consensus among
        > several of your best people, this is a fairly reliable
        > indicator.  It is difficult to go more than 3x per "link"
        > though - people are typically unable to discern the difference
        > between someone 9x as good as they are from someone who is 3x
        > as good as they are; this is why you have to do the "best
        > person you know" referral twice.  First, you hire all the best
        > people you know, work with them for awhile to find the best
        > amongst them, and then find all the best people *they* know. 
        > It is a multiple-stage approach; many people don't know this,
        > and just assume that "refer the best people you know" is the
        > end of it.

        Similarly, stalking someone's friends might be useful if you
        want to determine their character.

- many more Quora questions about judging character (many by Alex):

    - <https://www.quora.com/Judging-Character/How-do-you-evaluate-someones-ability-to-be-an-exceptional-judge-of-character>
    - <https://www.quora.com/Is-Elon-Musk-an-exceptional-judge-of-character-talent>
    - <https://www.quora.com/How-can-one-be-a-good-judge-of-character>
    - <https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-judge-peoples-character>
    - decent answer: <https://www.quora.com/How-can-you-become-a-good-judge-of-character/answer/Sridatta-Thatipamala>
    - <https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-judge-the-character-of-a-lady-girl>

        - observing ppl under stress might be important

- one important question: does the person have the same life goals as me?

- "Are you at peace with your past romantic partners? Do you feel at peace with their joys though the joys may be mutually shared no longer?" ([source](https://www.quora.com/What-single-question-would-you-ask-someone-if-you-were-trying-to-find-out-if-they-are-a-good-person/answer/Chantal-Murthy-1))

- Yishan Wong([source](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-indicate-in-a-job-posting-that-youre-looking-for-10x-or-ninja-type-people/answer/Yishan-Wong)):

    > the lesson here is that sometimes "10x people" are so good that
    > they don't really look for jobs in the same way other people do,
    > so you kind of have to find them via unorthodox means [...] [Y]ou
    > often have to make your job posting indicate a bit of quirkiness
    > in just the right way so that it happens to stick out to them when
    > they're casual perusing job ads 
    >
    > [...]
    >
    > the main idea is to visualize the personality and character of the
    > type of people you want to hire, and then put a message out
    > publicly that only those types of people will respond to or
    > provide a correct answer to.