if you don’t have high standards for employees it might because you’re misanthropic
That sounds to me like a needlessly complicated theory. Maybe the reason why they hire mediocre people is that exceptional people are rare and expensive?
Like, what’s the alternative to “They hire middling engineers instead of holding out for 10x’ers”? If you interview people, and you find out that most of them suck, and then there are a few average guys, but no 10x’er… should you keep waiting? You would be missing opportunities, losing the momentum, and running out of money.
The 10x’ers are few, and they have other opportunities that pay better and provide better work-life balance. The author seems to take for granted that all 10x’ers must be trying to get a job at a startup, and it must the startup’s fault to somehow push them away. I would assume that most of them already have a job.
links 11/05/25: https://roamresearch.com/#/app/srcpublic/page/11-05-2025
https://www.thirdoikos.com/p/life-in-the-third-oikos-jesse-genet description of daily life for an entrepreneur turned homeschool mom, interview by Nicole Ruiz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumash_people they’re still around!
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/arts/television/maria-riva-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU8.uFZP.tjEhyXyNasNz&smid=url-share Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich’s daughter, had a rough time growing up
https://builders.genagorlin.com/p/the-hidden-belief-that-kills-great by Gena Gorlin, if you don’t have high standards for employees it might because you’re misanthropic, aka you secretly believe “everyone sucks except me” and must be accommodated.
https://transluce.org/ AI interpretability org
That sounds to me like a needlessly complicated theory. Maybe the reason why they hire mediocre people is that exceptional people are rare and expensive?
Like, what’s the alternative to “They hire middling engineers instead of holding out for 10x’ers”? If you interview people, and you find out that most of them suck, and then there are a few average guys, but no 10x’er… should you keep waiting? You would be missing opportunities, losing the momentum, and running out of money.
The 10x’ers are few, and they have other opportunities that pay better and provide better work-life balance. The author seems to take for granted that all 10x’ers must be trying to get a job at a startup, and it must the startup’s fault to somehow push them away. I would assume that most of them already have a job.