Ask YC: Players at top of puzzle/game high score lists as ideal employees/cofounders? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Players at top of puzzle/game high score lists as ideal employees/cofounders?

2 pointsamichail6 comments

It seems to me that with puzzle sites especially, such people are probably very bright (high g factor). So if you are looking for an analytic person (not necessarily a software engineer), this might be a good way to find one.

See for example some of these amazing players:

http://numbrosia.com/?cmd=puzzle_r

http://numbrosia.com/?cmd=puzzle_r&sort_by=average

And indeed, if employees/cofounders start to look at these rankings carefully, maybe more people would play in the hope of proving themselves to potential employees/cofounders?

Taking it further, you could even have a meta high score site where you can identify top people in high score lists in many puzzle/game sites.

Or you might end up with people who just play games all day.

[Unlike us serious-minded folks who read message boards. Because we don't, um, waste time at all.]

It's not really my thing but there are some great gamer/hackers out there. Dennis Fong, the former DOOM champion who went on to start XFire before selling it to Viacom for $100 million, comes to mind.

It would depend on the puzzle.

For the one that you mention, where things are mostly deterministic, I would say no.A good founder is someone who is able to handle the unknown well. People who like the purely deterministic worlds of puzzles tend to do so because they are avoiding the more unpredictable parts of life. Such a person might be really good at following orders and really dependable, but he/she is less likely to come up with the breakthrough idea that no one else thinks of.

That's why I said "analytic". Such a person might be good for finding an efficient algorithm to a well-defined problem.

This is a good way to find the wrong kinds of clever people. They won't be productive because they will be too busy putting their hours into their favorite puzzles.

Putting aside the fact that "puzzle smarts" does not necessarily = "raw smarts", this is just one factor. Problem solving ability, work habits, stamina, and of course, "people skills" also count a lot. You can probably think of a few more critical traits. Don't overlook any one of them.

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