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Comment by samratjp | Hacker News Reader

The thing is that technology is only a means, so ask a real question such as:

What "can" you design under $1 that solves a major problem in the world?

Example answer: packets of salt and sugar is all it takes to prevent/solve dehydration in many sub-saharan countries. Can it save the world? Yes. Is it executable? Yes. Is the UI simple? Yes, ziplock sugar packets. Marketing costs? evangelize.

Point is that the technical skills can be evaluated to a great accuracy more or less, it is the real-time thinking skill that matters; i.e. it is extremely ok to ask a question that demands considerable attention and problem-solving. An ideal interviewee knows that a good answer is not a matter of complete polarization, but careful articulation.

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"The thing is that technology is only a means, so ask a real question such as:

What "can" you design under $1 that solves a major problem in the world?"

With all due respect I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs for e.g) would be able to answer this question?

This sounds like one of those textbook/puzzle questions which sound very clever but don't stand up to any rigorous analysis( imo).

I would be very surprised if answering this question "well" (your salt/sugar answer for example) correlated with any significant measure of entrepreneurial success. Needless to say, I would love to to data or studies that show otherwise.

The question is just an example, the underlying subtle notion is that what can an entrepreneur cook up with limited resources? Of course, you can ask them an intelligent question in any variety of ways - you can ask Jobs what can Apple design that solves audio learning problems in the third world for less than 20$ or so? Can Steve Jobs answer that question? Yes. Can he (or Apple rather) build it? Yes (well, in an interview you would ask a question that requires quite a bit of insight, not puzzles)

"This sounds like one of those textbook/puzzle questions which sound very clever but don't stand up to any rigorous analysis( imo)."

Again, it was an example. One could very well ask someone an on-the-spot question that would arise in a typical startup situation.

Answering the question "well" - if you are basing a hire's success just on the outcome of a question, then you may have some serious issues with measuring success.

How do salt/sugar solve dehydration?

OMG. Did you never heard about one spon of sugar, one spon of salt and one liter of water? It's the best for dehydration.

"How do salt/sugar solve dehydration?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy

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