I’ve been a big fan of podcasts for years now. Here are a few of my favorites:
- My First Million
- Founders
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- This Week in Startups
- All-in
What Podcasts have taught me is that while it’s important to consume content, it’s even more important to make connections between the different content you consume. I’ll give you one big example:
When I was listening to the My First Million podcast, both Shaan and Sam mentioned that they were big fans of Tim Ferriss. I had obviously heard of him before but never consumed anything he had written or created.
So I listened to one of the podcast episodes that he put out there. Seth Godin happened to be interviewed. And one thing he said really intrigued me. He said “At this point in my career, when I start something new, I work exclusively with people I’ve worked with in the past.” 🤔
Interesting… Why?
He explains that he wrote a blog post over a decade ago about the dangers of relying on false proxies. He gave some examples. “Someone could interview really well. But an interview tells you almost nothing about how they’ll perform in the real job. A charismatic interview is a false proxy for someone who will do great work.” (I’m paraphrasing here, but you can read his blog post for yourself.)
Whoa. This totally broke my frame. Particularly because I was working on building a course to help college students get a job. Interviewing is a skill that can be mastered. It’s extremely valuable. Colleges and universities aren’t great at teaching people how to do this well.
But… Seth is right. It’s performative. The interview only matters if the interviewee is actually deserving of the job they get. The only way to find out if that’s the case though is to give them the opportunity to do the work.
Making Connections
So I keep building the course, but start looking at what comes next, because at this point I’m concerned I’m solving the wrong problem with this course idea. It’s a valuable piece of content, and everyone should check it out, but it doesn’t really move the needle on students actually getting real work opportunities, or learning how to actually succeed in the job they get.
I’m listening to "This Week in Startups” and I hear Jason Calacanis talk about how he’s “done with the performative BS” of multiple rounds of interviews, reviewing resumes, etc. All he does now is hire someone for 2-3 weeks, or for a small project, and if they do well then he brings them on full-time.
Double whoa. Another well known tech entrepreneur talking about how they’re done with false proxies.
On their own, they’re slightly innocuous points. 60 second blips on hour-long podcasts.
But then I remembered something I had learned on two separate episodes of the Founders podcast:
- Charlie Munger once said “I read Barron’s for 50 years. In 50 years I found one investment opportunity out of which I made $80m with almost no risk.”
- Robert Caro talked about turning every page. Never assume anything. “Read like a hawk” to find what truly matters.
I see now that the act of listening to these podcasts wasn’t to consume every bit and memorize everything. It was to find out what really matters right now.
Is this my Munger-Barron’s moment?
Taking action
Is listening to (and trusting) podcasters a false proxy? Why am I taking them at their word that performative interview processes are a thing of the past?
I’d like to find out for myself if this shared idea from Seth and Jason is really worth pursuing. The only way to find out is to build it and sell it. Wish me luck!
Question for you:
What’s a false proxy in your life that you should be taking action on?
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