Thread by @evanwolf

@Austen I've been headhunted and hired headhunters. And was an exec at the world's largest private employer (3.5 million hires a year at the time). And I'm torn between three philosophies.

1. It's an engineering problem, so big data + algorithms to discover optimal fit.

@Austen Weakness: your data is horrible , your idea of The Right Stuff is invariably wrong, and it misses that prospects are humans with their own models of what's in their interest and how the world works.

@Austen 2. It's a social network problem. You have to find the guy who knows the gal who's tapped into that secret pool of magical 10X talent. Or you have to seduce the best from your competition, THE uni, etc..

Weakness: incestuous hiring from a homogenous gene pool.

@Austen 3. Honey trap. Be the most delightful workplace and people will flock to you to meet their needs to learn/grow/play/achieve/score/belong/Maslow.

Weakness: Attracts people with all levels of skill/ability/knowledge.

@Austen So, we do all three. We compete to discover unicorn talent.

But I keep thinking about the military. Start with ordinary people, induct & socialize, transform, deploy to orgs/systems that enable success. Supported B performers are abundant, cheaper, and outperform stars.