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"Hire people that you could describe as animals." - who the fk is this guy?


That guy? Paul Graham.

From 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.


What is he talking about? He isn't talking about a saying like "stubborn as a mule", is he?


He means that you should hire unbalanced workaholics, that meteoric success is more important than providing a good, sustainable life for yourself and your employees.


It'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.


I think nowadays he says 'relentlessly resourceful' instead.


He is saying disregard personal hygiene deficiencies.


Likely he means, "totally committed, focused and in the moment", like a party animal, and without existential doubts about being in your startup.




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