August 28, 2024 • 56min
Building A 100+ Year Legacy + Peter Thiel’s Fellowship + Bomb Hiring Questions
My First Million
Key Takeaways
- Incentivized philanthropy through prizes and competitions can be a powerful way to drive innovation and progress
- The Nobel Peace Prize, created by Alfred Nobel, has successfully encouraged and recognized world-changing achievements for over 130 years
- Other examples like the X Prize and DARPA Grand Challenge have spurred major advances in fields like space exploration and autonomous vehicles
- Peter Thiel's contrarian philanthropy through the Thiel Fellowship has produced notable successes like the founders of Ethereum and Figma
- Elon Musk's "sexy indifference" approach to philanthropy through a bare-bones foundation website
- Interview techniques from leaders like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs focus on probing candidates' real experiences and optimism
- Being a "harsh grader" of people in hiring and team-building, as exemplified by Warren Buffett, can lead to better outcomes
- Great people tend to show their potential within the first 2-3 weeks on a job
Introduction
In this episode, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss innovative approaches to philanthropy and hiring, inspired by tech leaders and billionaires. They explore how prizes and competitions can incentivize world-changing innovations, and examine unconventional interview techniques used by top CEOs. The conversation covers examples of "incentivized philanthropy" like the Nobel Peace Prize and X Prize, as well as hiring insights from figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett.
Topics Discussed
Alfred Nobel's Legacy and the Nobel Peace Prize (0:00)
Sam opens the episode by sharing the story of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who created the Nobel Peace Prize. After mistakenly being called the "merchant of death" in an erroneous obituary, Nobel decided to change his legacy:
- Nobel left 95% of his assets (equivalent to ~$300 million today) to create the Nobel Peace Prize
- The prize awards $1 million annually to those who have "impacted humanity the most" in categories like peace, chemistry, economics and literature
- It has lasted for 130 years and now has $600 million in assets
- Winners have included influential figures like Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ernest Hemingway
Sam notes how this prize has encouraged and recognized world-changing achievements: "I don't think there's too many people that are doing stuff just to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But in the back of their head, they're like, yeah, like, that would be amazing if I can discover something."
Other Examples of Incentivized Innovation (6:40)
The hosts discuss other examples of prizes driving innovation:
- Orteig Prize - $25,000 prize for first non-stop flight from New York to Paris, won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927
- X Prize - $10 million prize for reusable spacecraft, which helped spur the commercial space industry
- DARPA Grand Challenge - $1 million prize for autonomous vehicles that led to breakthroughs in self-driving technology
- Vesuvius Challenge - Prize to decipher ancient scrolls damaged by Mt. Vesuvius eruption using AI/ML techniques
Shaan notes the leverage these prizes create: "The genius of the X prize was that by putting up 10 million, and I think it became 20 million for the prize, people would like a bunch, 20 teams would invest 2 million each in trying to develop the thing to win the $10 million prize. And so you would get 40 million invested for a 10 million prize."
Peter Thiel's Contrarian Philanthropy (26:47)
The conversation turns to Peter Thiel's unconventional approach to philanthropy through the Thiel Fellowship:
- Offers $100,000 grants to young people to drop out of college and pursue entrepreneurship
- Controversial approach that challenges the value of traditional higher education
- Notable recipients include founders of Ethereum, Figma, and Luminar Technologies
Shaan explains Thiel's provocative communication style: "Peter Thiel, for all of his, like, very unsmooth, uncharismatic ways of speaking, the guy's kind of a master of communication. If you just don't make him speak, give, you know, give a talk, and you're not looking at the. The poetry of it."
Elon Musk's "Sexy Indifference" Philanthropy (32:30)
The hosts examine Elon Musk's bare-bones approach to his foundation:
- Musk Foundation website is extremely minimalist - just 5 bullet points on a blank page
- Sam coins this approach "sexy indifference" - projecting coolness through apparent lack of effort
- Musk donated $2 million to the Vesuvius Challenge mentioned earlier
Sam describes the website: "It's a website with no design. It's a blank piece of paper with five bullet points, and it says, musk foundation grants are made in support of renewable energy, human space exploration, pediatric research, science and engineering education, development of artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. That's it."
Interview Questions from Tech Leaders (37:22)
The hosts discuss interview techniques used by prominent tech CEOs:
- Elon Musk asks candidates about the toughest problems they've solved to filter for real experience
- Steve Jobs would ask "Why are you here?" to understand motivation
- Jeff Bezos liked to ask "Are you a lucky person?" to gauge optimism
On the "lucky" question, Shaan explains: "Sorting for optimistic people is a good proxy for leadership potential and likelihood of success. Perceiving yourself as lucky is a proxy for optimism."
Being a "Harsh Grader" of People (44:25)
The conversation turns to Warren Buffett's approach to evaluating people:
- Buffett uses a very tight filter, quickly identifying clear "yes" and "no" candidates
- He puts anyone he's unsure about in the "no" pile
- This "harsh grader" approach minimizes the risk of bad hires
Shaan recounts Buffett's philosophy: "The cost of bringing a not great person into my circle of life is so high. The cost of discarding somebody who might be great is nothing is so low, comparatively. He's like, so I am willing to be a very harsh grader of people."
Great People Show Potential Early (47:49)
Shaan shares a controversial opinion about identifying top talent quickly:
- Great employees tend to show their potential within the first 2-3 weeks on a job
- This view was unpopular with HR when Shaan expressed it publicly at Twitch
- But Shaan stands by it based on his experience
Shaan explains: "Great people are great right off the bat. They show you greatness in the first two or three weeks. I've never seen, or, you know, rarely ever will you ever see somebody who turns out to be great. That just was eh, in the first two, three weeks."
Conclusion
This wide-ranging conversation explored innovative approaches to philanthropy and hiring from some of the tech world's most prominent leaders. The hosts highlighted how prizes and competitions can drive major innovations by providing both financial incentives and public recognition. They also examined unconventional interview techniques and hiring philosophies used by figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett to identify top talent.
Key themes included the power of "incentivized philanthropy" through carefully structured prizes, the value of being a "harsh grader" when evaluating people, and the importance of quickly identifying high-potential employees. The discussion provided insights into how billionaires and tech leaders approach giving back to society and building world-class teams in unconventional ways.