The one thing worth hiring for

The one thing worth hiring for is the company you choose to travel with.

Likewise, there’s but one magical attribute that everybody should look for when hiring. That quality is a good epistemology. One that is rooted in observations and revision.

What is it that we are really looking for when we hire? Many have the resume, many know the stack and frameworks. If there is a single quality worth weighting above the rest, it is something quieter and harder to test for: a good epistemology — a sound, well-examined way of coming to know things.

Let’s clear away at least one caricature. A good epistemologist is decidedly not a simple skepticism machine, believing nothing until each unique instance has been witnessed firsthand.

“While walking into this wall, I know that there is nothing to magically carry me through it.”

There is nothing surprising about this. The notion that scientific methods will guard belief until proof arrives, case by case, is not rigor. It’s a misunderstanding of the art of science, something oft underappreciated.

Instead, when hiring, I’ve always found it to be better to find those who watch, synthesize, learn, and remain honest and trustworthy. These are the people to add to a company above all others.