Essay
How to Hire Smarter Than the Market: A Toy Model
Erik Bernhardsson Free Advanced
Being outside the big startup hubs is only a disadvantage if you compete for the same over-priced candidates everyone else chases. Bernhardsson makes the case, with a simple model, that you win by targeting developers the market undervalues (self taught, non traditional backgrounds, wrong framework on paper). It reframes your lack of a warm network as a chance to fish where others are not looking.
- Go after candidates the market systematically underprices
- Fancy school and stack keywords are weak signals of real ability
- Generalists and self taught builders are often overlooked bargains
