

Ask YC: Players at top of puzzle/game high score lists as ideal employees/cofounders? - amichail

It seems to me that with puzzle sites especially, such people are probably very bright (high g factor).  So if you are looking for an analytic person (not necessarily a software engineer), this might be a good way to find one.<p>See for example some of these amazing players:<p>http://numbrosia.com/?cmd=puzzle_r<p>http://numbrosia.com/?cmd=puzzle_r&#38;sort_by=average<p>And indeed, if employees/cofounders start to look at these rankings carefully, maybe more people would play in the hope of proving themselves to potential employees/cofounders?<p>Taking it further, you could even have a meta high score site where you can identify top people in high score lists in many puzzle/game sites.
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optimal
Or you might end up with people who just play games all day.

[Unlike us serious-minded folks who read message boards. Because we don't, um,
waste time at all.]

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bayareaguy
It's not really my thing but there are some great gamer/hackers out there.
Dennis Fong, the former DOOM champion who went on to start XFire before
selling it to Viacom for $100 million, comes to mind.

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dusklight
It would depend on the puzzle.

For the one that you mention, where things are mostly deterministic, I would
say no.A good founder is someone who is able to handle the unknown well.
People who like the purely deterministic worlds of puzzles tend to do so
because they are avoiding the more unpredictable parts of life. Such a person
might be really good at following orders and really dependable, but he/she is
less likely to come up with the breakthrough idea that no one else thinks of.

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amichail
That's why I said "analytic". Such a person might be good for finding an
efficient algorithm to a well-defined problem.

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Kaizyn
This is a good way to find the wrong kinds of clever people. They won't be
productive because they will be too busy putting their hours into their
favorite puzzles.

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edw519
Putting aside the fact that "puzzle smarts" does not necessarily = "raw
smarts", this is just one factor. Problem solving ability, work habits,
stamina, and of course, "people skills" also count a lot. You can probably
think of a few more critical traits. Don't overlook any one of them.

