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> I don’t look for people who get good grades for the sake of getting good grades. But people who have good grades as a byproduct of just wanting to do well. W

> I don’t look for people who get good grades for the sake of getting good grades. But people who have good grades as a byproduct of just wanting to do well. What is the distinction? Surely a "internally motivated" person would be driven to learn regardless of grades. Anyway, I'm fairly certain nobody will ever work for you out of simply "internal motivation".

michaelrpeskin 3y ago
I'll use an example outside my field. I have a friend who's a mechanical engineer. He's smart and pretty talented, and is a real hard worker. But the reason he's a mechanical engineer is that he wasn't good at theoretical physics and by going "down" a step, he was able to apply all the physics ideas to mechanical engineering. So he was able to do well in the field. But it's not what he "does for fun". There are also people at his small company who spend every weekend building race cars just for fun. They have barns full of engines and tools (I'm jealous of how much space they can afford out in the rural areas!). The reason that they are such good engineers is that they find it fun. They do it in their spare time for fun. They find solving these kind of problems fun. So when they go to work during the week, they're having fun which makes them really good at what they do. My friend said it to me before that "you can't beat someone who does it for fun" and that's just about for everything. If you look at the best hedge fund managers, sure they had more money than I did to get started. But they also find it fun to do (what I think is) the drudgery of learning the space that they're working in. So back to grades...if you find someone with good grades who sounds like they worked for the good grades, that's fine, they're a hard worker and you probably won't go wrong with them. But if you find someone with good grades who just was having fun solving problems and happened to get good grades, then you have a real winner. And I think you need to just talk to people and see what they say. You can tell the "grinds" from the others. I'm also careful to keep in mind that lots of it is luck: having interest (finding it fun), talent (also being good at it), and value (someone willing to pay for it) doesn't make you a better person, it just makes you good at the one thing that someone wants. For example, the things that I find fun are related so solving certain kinds of mathematical problems with software. I was able to find a company that needs that, but there are very small number of places that need what I love. If I had to work for Big Software Co, I'd be ok at it, but wouldn't be a 10x developer. I guess I'm just saying that luck plays a lot into it.

michaelrpeskin 3y ago

I'll use an example outside my field. I have a friend who's a mechanical engineer. He's smart and pretty talented, and is a real hard worker. But the reason he's a mechanical engineer is that he wasn't good at theoretical physics and by going "down" a step, he was able to apply all the physics ideas to mechanical engineering. So he was able to do well in the field. But it's not what he "does for fun". There are also people at his small company who spend every weekend building race cars just for fun. They have barns full of engines and tools (I'm jealous of how much space they can afford out in the rural areas!). The reason that they are such good engineers is that they find it fun. They do it in their spare time for fun. They find solving these kind of problems fun. So when they go to work during the week, they're having fun which makes them really good at what they do. My friend said it to me before that "you can't beat someone who does it for fun" and that's just about for everything. If you look at the best hedge fund managers, sure they had more money than I did to get started. But they also find it fun to do (what I think is) the drudgery of learning the space that they're working in. So back to grades...if you find someone with good grades who sounds like they worked for the good grades, that's fine, they're a hard worker and you probably won't go wrong with them. But if you find someone with good grades who just was having fun solving problems and happened to get good grades, then you have a real winner. And I think you need to just talk to people and see what they say. You can tell the "grinds" from the others. I'm also careful to keep in mind that lots of it is luck: having interest (finding it fun), talent (also being good at it), and value (someone willing to pay for it) doesn't make you a better person, it just makes you good at the one thing that someone wants. For example, the things that I find fun are related so solving certain kinds of mathematical problems with software. I was able to find a company that needs that, but there are very small number of places that need what I love. If I had to work for Big Software Co, I'd be ok at it, but wouldn't be a 10x developer. I guess I'm just saying that luck plays a lot into it.