Another great segment from the recent “Founders” episode about Sam Walton is related to finding ways to hire creative people. More specifically, how do you determine the creativity of someone during an interview? Here’s a bit from the show:
One of the best ways to find creative people is to ask a simple question.
What books do you like? I’ve never met a creative person in my life that didn’t respond with enthusiasm to a question about reading habits. Which books people read is not as important as the simple fact that they read at all. I’ve known many talented engineers who hated science fiction but loved, say, books on bird watching.
A blatant but often accurate generalization. People who are curious and passionate read. People who are apathetic and indifferent don’t.
I’ve found this to be true in my life as well, but he added an interesting twist about the specific books not mattering, and he’s right. I’ve never thought about it that way, but I find creative people are almost always avid readers, but their choice of books varies wildly. It’s simply that creative people tend to be eager to fill themselves with the creativity of others, and books are a great way to do that.
When you ask someone “what books do you like?”, the answer itself is relatively unimportant, with the real insight simply being the excitement with which the answer is delivered.
