4 ms·

Long ago, a boss told me: "Hire into your weakness." That's a tough pill for managers to swallow. If we hire people who are stronger than we are in certain area

Long ago, a boss told me: "Hire into your weakness." That's a tough pill for managers to swallow. If we hire people who are stronger than we are in certain areas, we run the risk of looking incompetent. We may look foolish, or be in a position to have to ask for advice more often than we like. If we hire people who are better than we are in some realms, they may not respect us. good lord. do people really think like that? if so, i think they've got much bigger problems than merely hiring people like themselves.

daniel-cussen 18y ago
Yes, I imagine a lot of people do think like this. Hell, I'd say that, for most people, losing authority is seen as worse than simply failing without losing face.
marijn 18y ago
The process doesn't have to be conscious. People who are competent in areas one doesn't understand can come across as vaguely intimidating, while being weak in areas where one is stong might be interpreted as stupidity. As such, unless you are extremely honest with yourself you run the risk of underestimating those that differ from you, and overestimating your mirror image.
- allenbrunson 18y ago
  what surprises me is to see an article like this on hacker news, and to see it getting serious upvotes. if you ask me, the author of that article is not part of the solution, she's part of the problem. she's describing a framework where decisions are made based on ego and pride. exactly the sort of environment that the average hacker news reader wants to avoid. then she goes on to describe how you might fix one small part of this -- by deigning to hire someone not exactly like yourself. while leaving the rest of the ego-based framework intact, no doubt. i'm guessing the real problem she's describing is deep insecurity. i'd prefer to see her tackle that one, rather than some tiny insignificant facet of it, as she's chosen to do here.
  - prakash 18y ago
    The degree of Hackerness on HN has been going down since that techcrunch post, now days it's a lot like reddit a few months before the condenest sale. Of course, this is my subjective opinion. These days the challenge with any community is that once the masses find out about it, it's all downhill in a matter of months, unlike years before.
    - coglethorpe 18y ago
      I'll make you two a deal. If you submit hackerish stories to HN, I'll keep an eye on your profiles and vote for them. I'm serious. I'd actually see more hackerism here.
      - aspirant 18y ago
        I sympathize. In an attempt to help I wrote and submitted the item below, but I think it got zero visibility on the site due to my newness and lack of karma. As far as I can tell it's the sort of thing you want to see more of, but if not please tell me. Why Hacking Exists: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=247513 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=247513
    - swombat 18y ago
      Let me tell you sonny... let me set you straight You kids today ain't never had it rough Always had everything handed to you on a silver plate You lazy brats think nothing's good enough Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below We had to walk buck naked through forty miles of snow Worked in the coal mines twenty two hours a day for just half a cent Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent Let me tell you something, you whiny little snot There's something wrong with all you kids today You just don't appreciate all the things you've got We were hungry, broken and miserable and we liked it fine that way There were seventy three of us living in a cardboard box All I got for Christmas was a lousy bag of rocks Every night for dinner, we had a big 'ol chunk of dirt If we were really good, we didn't get dessert Didn't have no telephone, didn't have no FAX machine All we had was a couple cans and a crummy piece of string Didn't have no swimming pool when I was just a lad Our neighbor's septic tank was the closest thing we had Didn't have no dental floss, had to use old rusty nails Didn't have Nintendo, we just poured salt on snails Didn't have no water bed, had to sleep on broken glass Didn't have no lawnmower, we used our teeth to cut the grass What's the matter now, sonny, you say you don't believe this junk? You think my story's wearin' kinda thin? I tell you one thing, I never was such a disrespectful punk Back in my time, we had a thing called discipline My dad would whoop us every night till a quarter after twelve Then he'd get too tired and he'd make us whoop ourselves Then he'd chop me into pieces and play frisbee with my brain And let me tell ya, Junior, you never heard me complain
ibsulon 18y ago
It's often a subconscious decision.

daniel-cussen 18y ago

Yes, I imagine a lot of people do think like this. Hell, I'd say that, for most people, losing authority is seen as worse than simply failing without losing face.

marijn 18y ago

The process doesn't have to be conscious. People who are competent in areas one doesn't understand can come across as vaguely intimidating, while being weak in areas where one is stong might be interpreted as stupidity. As such, unless you are extremely honest with yourself you run the risk of underestimating those that differ from you, and overestimating your mirror image.

allenbrunson 18y ago
what surprises me is to see an article like this on hacker news, and to see it getting serious upvotes. if you ask me, the author of that article is not part of the solution, she's part of the problem. she's describing a framework where decisions are made based on ego and pride. exactly the sort of environment that the average hacker news reader wants to avoid. then she goes on to describe how you might fix one small part of this -- by deigning to hire someone not exactly like yourself. while leaving the rest of the ego-based framework intact, no doubt. i'm guessing the real problem she's describing is deep insecurity. i'd prefer to see her tackle that one, rather than some tiny insignificant facet of it, as she's chosen to do here.
- prakash 18y ago
  The degree of Hackerness on HN has been going down since that techcrunch post, now days it's a lot like reddit a few months before the condenest sale. Of course, this is my subjective opinion. These days the challenge with any community is that once the masses find out about it, it's all downhill in a matter of months, unlike years before.
  - coglethorpe 18y ago
    I'll make you two a deal. If you submit hackerish stories to HN, I'll keep an eye on your profiles and vote for them. I'm serious. I'd actually see more hackerism here.
    - aspirant 18y ago
      I sympathize. In an attempt to help I wrote and submitted the item below, but I think it got zero visibility on the site due to my newness and lack of karma. As far as I can tell it's the sort of thing you want to see more of, but if not please tell me. Why Hacking Exists: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=247513 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=247513
  - swombat 18y ago
    Let me tell you sonny... let me set you straight You kids today ain't never had it rough Always had everything handed to you on a silver plate You lazy brats think nothing's good enough Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below We had to walk buck naked through forty miles of snow Worked in the coal mines twenty two hours a day for just half a cent Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent Let me tell you something, you whiny little snot There's something wrong with all you kids today You just don't appreciate all the things you've got We were hungry, broken and miserable and we liked it fine that way There were seventy three of us living in a cardboard box All I got for Christmas was a lousy bag of rocks Every night for dinner, we had a big 'ol chunk of dirt If we were really good, we didn't get dessert Didn't have no telephone, didn't have no FAX machine All we had was a couple cans and a crummy piece of string Didn't have no swimming pool when I was just a lad Our neighbor's septic tank was the closest thing we had Didn't have no dental floss, had to use old rusty nails Didn't have Nintendo, we just poured salt on snails Didn't have no water bed, had to sleep on broken glass Didn't have no lawnmower, we used our teeth to cut the grass What's the matter now, sonny, you say you don't believe this junk? You think my story's wearin' kinda thin? I tell you one thing, I never was such a disrespectful punk Back in my time, we had a thing called discipline My dad would whoop us every night till a quarter after twelve Then he'd get too tired and he'd make us whoop ourselves Then he'd chop me into pieces and play frisbee with my brain And let me tell ya, Junior, you never heard me complain

ibsulon 18y ago

It's often a subconscious decision.