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I got excited when I saw the cover of Thinking Fast and Slow. But he failed to mention what I found to be one of the most insightful parts of that book: interviewing.

He kinda touched on it at the end with #1: "Know what you're looking for".

Kahneman is more explicit in Thinking Fast and Slow: come up with a simple rubric of 5 or 6 traits you're looking for in your new hire and ask questions that allow you to score each candidate on a scale of 1 to 5 for each. When you're done, choose the candidate with the highest score.

Maybe the technical ability score gets double-weighted for developers. But it seems like a lot of the interview process (and discussion of it) fixates on this. Well this and, of course, vague impressions of the candidate's personality. In my experience, this misses other key things that make up a competent programmer and worthwhile employee.

In the spirit of Thinking Fast and Slow, here's a question. As an interviewer, what are the 5 most important traits or qualities you look for in a candidate?




I'm still working my way through the book, but glad to know he touches on this.




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