

Hire Athletes - jaf12duke
http://42floors.com/blog/hire-athletes/

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bps4484
Yikes this is a bad article. The author makes no connection to how the
attributes he describes are more commonly found in athletes. What makes them
generalists? Why are they adaptive? Why are they 'makers'?

And even worse I think he missed a good opportunity to talk about what kind of
attributes an athlete may bring to the table in general, or specifically at a
startup. Attributes I have noticed _:

-An ability to take criticism. Usually coaches don't hold back telling you what you're doing wrong and how to fix it. I've had a lacrosse coach go through every player on a team and publicly tell them what they do poorly. I'm not saying that is the best coaching style, but it gets you used to handling criticism and responding to it. -An ability to face failure. At one point or another everyone fails at sports. Usually it happens a lot. Being able to respond and grow from those failures can be really important, especially at a startup. -Competitiveness. Obviously by competing a lot athlete will have a desire to win. In addition, I've found they have a "do anything to win" attitude that can be great at a startup when you need people to fill in rolls that may not be glamorous or cool but are integral to success

_these attribues aren't only found in athletes, but I have found them more
often with athletes more than the general populous

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Adrock
I can't tell if this is literally talking about people who compete in physical
activities or not. I feel like you could replace every instance of the word
"athlete" with "ninja" or some other term and it would make just as much
sense. Am I missing something?

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sethist
The definition of "athlete" as it is used in this article is most popular in
college football. There are a variety of set positions (jobs) in football and
each player generally only plays one or two positions. The term athlete is
used to describe a player who doesn't have one particular set position. This
is either because of their versatility or a lack of any specific specialized
skill. More often than not, a player will be labeled an athlete as they enter
college but will quickly be assigned a position in order for him to focus his
training.

The idea is that athletes are rawer, more malleable, more flexible, but
riskier and generally less skilled (therefore probably cheaper) employees when
compared to true specialists. This makes them good hires for startups.

The article could have benefited from actually saying this.

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sid05
This metaphor will probably fly over most people's head.

It makes perfect sense to me if you can imagine the progression of a beginner
entering any sport

When you try to become more athletic do you shoot more free throws or run more
passing routes ? Neither. Your goal is to build a strong foundation in
strength, speed, agility, and power up to an elite level and then specialize
once you've decided what sport or position you want to play to tailor your
training appropriately.

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dumb-typist
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I don't understand why so far (6 comments) people are commenting seriously on
this essay.

This essay looks like a somewhat mechanical prank to me, as if someone decided
to:

1\. Assemble generic hacker news style article about why hackers are good. For
example, "Hackers are always making things, they can't help themselves". [RE-
EDIT: This is an actual quote from the essay, except that the word "athletes"
was used instead of "hackers".]

2\. Make it stupid by substituting "athlete" for "hacker". Maybe they thought
this would be an obvious absurdity because they think hackers are "nerds", and
that "nerds" and "jocks" are obvious opposites?

3\. Make it slightly less obvious by dressing it up with a little extra
athlete-related stuff, like the cartoons about athletes.

I would also like to suggest that "Jason Freedman" is an obvious parody
substitution for "Jason Fried." Also, "42floors" <\--> "37 signals" [EDIT: My
God, it turns out these are supposedly a real person and his real company.
Coincidence, or convenient choice to surf on the influence of similarity?]

My take: do you spend too much time reading "Hacker News", so hurriedly that
your credulity muscles get too much exercise?

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ruswick
Nothing you say here is substantiated. Why is it bad to laud hackers? Why is
the term "athlete" more "stupid" than "hacker?" How do sports cartoons make
the "parody" less conspicuous?

On you final note, both 42floors and Jason Freedman are real entities:

<https://angel.co/42floors>

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jason-freedman>

I don't understand why you think the name _Jason Freedman_ is suspicious. The
name Jason is common. The name Freedman is common. God forbid they appear in
tandem and vaguely resemble the name of another entrepreneur.

This piece doen't read as a prank in any discernible way. It might be
preaching to the choir to an extent, but it's not suspicious.

~~~
dumb-typist
There's nothing inherently bad about lauding hackers. But the essay as
published said, " _Athletes_ are always making things; they can't help
themselves". That makes no sense. What makes some sense is if someone started
with text about hackers, and substituted the word "athletes".

The term "athlete" is not a stupid term. But substituting it for "hacker"
sometimes produces absurd results.

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readclosely
Read closely and you'll spot this...

"Metaphorically speaking, that is. I don’t mean athletes as in people who play
sports. Athletes, as in people that can play any position within your startup.
It means someone is first and foremost a generalist. "

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gte910h
That sounds like a great way to run afoul of employment law.

