Ask HN: Looking for a Book | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Looking for a Book

1 pointhartator1 comment

I am looking for a book that I saw on HN and read.

I don't remember the title of the book. One of the principles was to hire first for trust, then for motivation, and last for skills. Reasoning being that motivation without trust can be very dangerous for the business. And that if someone has high integrity and a lot of self-drive but no skills, it's actually not an issue and you should just train them and invest in their education.

This was a fantastic principle and helped guide through tough hiring decisions. I want my team to read that book as well for all of us to be on the same page. And I also want to dig further in other principles of the book.

It can be a book about hiring specifically, but can also be a more general book about businesses, startups, tech, productivity, or a random biography of an entrepreneur.

Any idea what the book can be? Thank you!

So, for fun, I searched, and trust came up about never (that's a shame) compared to "attitude". And as for attitude, one suggested a raft of tests/criteria (which personally make me cringe, because I am a bit of a contrarian, and wary of being "stamped").

But trust may be really hard to estimate from the outside. I suppose that anecdotes from one's career could, but they really should come from references, not the candidate. That said, I sometimes retell tales where I acted with real trust.

These may trigger your memory.

Hiring based on personality, not skills.

https://cmoe.com/blog/hiring-personality-better-hiring-skill...

Six personality tests (ouch!)

https://cmoe.com/blog/personality-tests-develop-employees/

Why I hire for attitude, not skills.

https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strateg... https://cmoe.com/blog/hiring-personality-better-hiring-skill...

Mark Murphy, author:

Hire for attitude

My contrarian side also found:

Want Innovation? Hire for Skills, Not Attitude

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfischer/2012/01/25/want-inn...

References a book by Dan Schwabel, "Hiring for Attitude" as a strawman.

quote from the article:

  So, here's a new mantra: For everyday work, hire for attitude, train for skills; but when big change, such as innovation, is envisioned, then hire for skills (because you need them) and figure out how to deal with the attitudes (because, all too often, they come along with the skills).

end quote

I personally struck a balance between trust, not bending the rules (much) in my favor while always lending support to teammates, and contrarianism, which brought fresh ideas to the table in a positive (and non-obnoxious) way.

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