
What I learned from Howard Stern about interviewing people - vcherubini
http://growingsoftware.org/getting-the-truth/
======
jamesbritt
_However, the best way Howard gets the truth out of his guests is by lying
directly to them about a specific piece of their life. By telling them a lie
about themselves, the very first reaction they have is to correct it and by
doing so, they give the answer he’s searching for._

This is very useful Usenet+ trick to get an answer to a question. You could be
nice and simply ask a question: "How can I do X in Y?" and you might get an
answer. Maybe.

Or you could simply assert, "It is impossible to do X in Y", and get a flood
of replies because, well, xkcd 386 should cover it.

[http://xkcd.com/386/](http://xkcd.com/386/)

edit: It occurred to me that there may be a practical way to spin this when
getting software requirements. For example, you could simply ask, "Is <some
quality or feature or behavior> important?" Ir you could phrase it as an
assertion: "OK, so I'm assuming that <some quality or feature or behavior> is
not important." Or some variation.

I wonder if that difference in phrasing leads to getting better details. That
is, in what way does how you phrase something (question or assertion, positive
or negative) push a response in one direction or another?

~~~
brandnewlow
I use this approach to get my team to pick a place to eat lunch often. When no
one has a strong feeling about where we should go, I suggest a visit to the
local McDonald's. Ideas begin pouring forth almost immediately.

~~~
jebblue
McDonalds's fish sandwiches can't be beaten. That is a fact.

~~~
DigitalJack
While they are good, who in their right mind puts cheese on fried fish?

~~~
staunch
The real question is "Why no bacon?"

------
AndrewKemendo
Welcome to Elicitation 101 [1]. The author points out one of the most obvious
and easily used ones:

 _Deliberate False Statements / Denial of the Obvious_: Say something wrong in
the hopes that the person will correct your statement with true information.
“Everybody knows that process won’t work—it’s just a DARPA dream project that
will never get off the ground.”

[1][http://www.fbi.gov/about-
us/investigate/counterintelligence/...](http://www.fbi.gov/about-
us/investigate/counterintelligence/elicitation-techniques)

~~~
kedonkhal
This brochure is super helpful; it's concise and practical. Thanks for
sharing!

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tacoman
As someone who is socially awkward, especially at small talk and the
superficial dialog that seems to preface any real discussion or conversation,
I find Howard Stern to be amazing to listen to. He can talk about one small
thing for minutes at a time without you realizing how much time has gone by.

I don't really appreciate his humour, but analysing his conversations is very
interesting and educational.

~~~
da02
Stern sounds like he would go "deep" into a topic. Most people seem to want
appetizers: various little known facts with little context. If you go too
deep, it's boring and too technical for most people. Maybe that is why small
talk is difficult for some? (That includes me.)

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WalterBright
What was fun to me was when Howard interviewed Paul McCartney. Howard tried
ever interview trick in the book, and Paul deftly swatted them away. It was
great watching two masters spar at each other.

I saw the same thing when Prince Charles was interviewed by 60 Minutes, where
Prince Charles effortlessly parried every tactic tried by the reporter.

~~~
mgkimsal
I don't think he swatted them all away. He let some things slip by, although
I've no doubt it was not spontaneous "let my guard down and got caught
accidentally" on Paul's part.

~~~
WalterBright
I got the clear impression from Paul that he only revealed what he wanted to,
not what Howard manipulated him into revealing. This is unlike what happens
with his other guests.

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chops
I remember reading that a variant of this technique was used way back to coax
Beethoven to perform for guests. He was known to not want to play on request
(iirc, it was a pride "I do what I want when I want, I'm not your dancing
monkey" kind of thing).

So if you wanted to get him to play for you, you merely had to poorly play one
of his works, and he would be so annoyed that he would react by playing it the
right way).

I wish I remember where I read this (hadn't thought of it in years, so I may
have details wrong, but the premise is the same).

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jonahx
The Louis CK video isn't time tagged....

Woops. I mean: The Louis CK video does not have a single example of the
author's thesis in it!

~~~
blago
The second video is a dud too. Towards the end, Bryan Cranston admits that
indeed, he married at 23.

------
bfell
I use the devil's advocate approach to gathering software requirements. I
argue against what I feel are good ideas and argue for what are seemingly not
so good ideas. As long as you don't get too far off track the discussion is
often very enlightening about what your customers actually want to build. The
downside is that you either end up feeling like or looking like an idiot
because you're seemingly on the wrong side of idea (BTW I'm not claiming that
I'm not an idiot). Letting everyone know that this is your approach doesn't
have much, if any, downside and alleviates this problem. Having another person
to tag team with makes it less exhausting. It works for the same reason that
Stern's approach works - people love to tell you how you are wrong.

------
drakaal
The Interviews are more interesting if the person is naked.

If you don't have to follow the broadcast rules, you can ask questions nobody
else can.

If you hire a black female as your co-host people won't be so quick to call
you a racist or sexist.

(that's what I learned)

~~~
mikevm
Looks like you don't know the first thing about Howard Stern.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Really? I think he nailed it.

~~~
chaistudios
I've listened daily for the last 10 years and I can shed some light.

    
    
      > "The Interviews are more interesting if the person is naked."
    

This is absolutely not true. The best and most interesting interviews are the
celebrity interviews, not the porn stars. Does Howard actually think he's
going to get Denise Richards to take her top off? No. It's a tactic just like
the tactics in this article. She says no the the extreme, but will compromise
with something more tame but still revealing.

    
    
      > "If you don't have to follow the broadcast rules, you can ask questions nobody else can."
    

I agree with this, and I love that he can.

    
    
      > "If you hire a black female as your co-host people won't be so quick to call you a racist or sexist."
    

This sounds like it may work, but clearly doesn't. Howard has always been a
supporter of race equality, gender equality and gay rights, but he's
constantly viewed as a racist, sexist homophobe. Infact, when asked, people
would rather date Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "The Boston Bomber" than Howard Stern
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLF7SCNHctE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLF7SCNHctE))

~~~
mikevm
Hey nowwwwwww!

I'd like to add that it's true that now that Howard is on Sirius he can be
more graphic in his questions, but even when he was on terrestrial radio he
asked questions nobody else did.

It's also quite clear to anyone who's a fan of the show that Robin was not
hired so that Howard could get away with racism or sexism. Robin wasn't even
hired by Howard when they first met.

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kadobaro
"Learning this skill won’t necessarily make you a better software engineer, or
entrepreneur, but it can get information from people that are otherwise not
willing to reveal it."

Pfft, every successful entrepreneur I've met from the Kansai area of Japan
does this. The first step is knowing the price of everything, isn't it?

