Don’t hire the smartest job candidate | Tyler Cowen

Economist Tyler Cowen explains why you should not hire the smartest job candidate. Here’s what to look for instead.

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What do Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Stevie Ray Vaughan have in common? In addition to being phenomenal 20th-century musicians, all were scouted or had their careers furthered by the American record producer John Hammond.

Finding talent is a talent in itself. And to the author and economics professor Tyler Cowen, it is a talent that gets neglected in many companies, whether due to biases, boring hiring practices, or a failure to think outside the box.

As Cowen explains in this Big Think video, the way to go about finding exceptional talent is by searching the areas where the rest of the market is not looking.

0:00 The talent problem
0:58 John Hammond: A legendary talent scout
2:06 The intelligence bias
3:37 Discover undervalued talents
5:56 The FOMO mentality: Learning from venture capitalists

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/how-to-hire

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About Tyler Cowen:
Tyler is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is co-author of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and co-founder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University.
Tyler also writes a column for Bloomberg View, and he has contributed to The Wall Street Journal and Money. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Tyler as “America’s Hottest Economist” after his e-book, The Great Stagnation, appeared twice on The New York Times e-book bestseller list.
He graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor's degree in economics and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He also runs a podcast series called Conversations with Tyler. His latest book Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives and Winners Around the World is co-authored with venture capitalist Daniel Gross.

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