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"Hire people that you could describe as animals." - who the fk is this guy?
by humanfromearth 13y ago
"Hire people that you could describe as animals." - who the fk is this guy?
- gyardley 13y agoThat guy? Paul Graham. From http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html - What do I mean by good people? One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Could you describe the person as an animal? It might be hard to translate that into another language, but I think everyone in the US knows what it means. It means someone who takes their work a little too seriously; someone who does what they do so well that they pass right through professional and cross over into obsessive. Something got lost in that one sentence synopsis. He wasn't suggesting that you dehumanize your employees by literally thinking of them as animals.
- jabbernotty 13y agoWhat is he talking about? He isn't talking about a saying like "stubborn as a mule", is he?
- dpritchett 13y agoI think nowadays he says 'relentlessly resourceful' instead.
- nanl2053 13y agoIt's like saying "that person is a machine." They are able to sustain a high level of work output. Think of an ox tirelessly tilling a field.
- youngerdryas 13y agoHe is saying disregard personal hygiene deficiencies.
- mrperl 13y agoLikely he means, "totally committed, focused and in the moment", like a party animal, and without existential doubts about being in your startup.
- tspike 13y agoHe means that you should hire unbalanced workaholics, that meteoric success is more important than providing a good, sustainable life for yourself and your employees.