Jazz

Elon Musk reveals the single question he uses to spot liars in interviews: "When I interview somebody, I really just ask them to tell me the story of their career, what are some of the tougher problems they dealt with, how they dealt with those, and how they made decisions at key transition points. Usually that's enough to get a very good gut feel about someone." Elon explains what he's looking for: "What I'm really looking for is evidence of exceptional ability. Did they face really difficult problems and overcome them?" Then he shares how to tell if someone is lying about their accomplishments: "You want to make sure that if there was some significant accomplishment, were they really responsible, or was somebody else more responsible? The person who actually had to struggle with the problem, they really understand it. They don't forget. You can ask them very detailed questions about it and they will know the answer. The person who was not truly responsible for that accomplishment will not know the details." On whether college degrees matter: "There's no need to have a college degree at all. Or even high school. If somebody graduated from a great university, that may be an indication they'll be capable of great things, but it's not necessarily the case. Look at Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs. These guys didn't graduate from college. But if you had a chance to hire them, of course that would be a good idea." He concludes: "I'm just looking for evidence of exceptional ability. If there's a track record of exceptional achievement, it's likely that will continue into the future."

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