Beyond Smart: Why Ambition, Energy, and Empathy Matter More in Hiring

Tyler Cowen shares 5 key insights from Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

How do you spot talent? If you’re hiring or putting together a team, you definitely want to surround yourself with creative, skilled, and motivated people. But actually finding such folks can be tough. In the book Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World, influential economist and best-selling author

Tyler Cowen

presents research on the art and science of attracting and retaining individuals who can truly move your organization forward. Tyler is a professor at George Mason University and one of the most widely-read economists working today. Co-author Daniel Gross is a serial entrepreneur and investor whose latest venture, Pioneer, is a startup accelerator focused on finding innovative talent around the world. Our curator Malcolm Gladwell says their book is “what happens when two brilliant and profoundly iconoclastic minds apply their imagination to one of the hardest of all business problems: the search for good people.” Here’s Tyler to share 5 big ideas from the book.

The Key Insights

1. Talent is the critical asset in modern economies.

2. To find the best talent, you have to be connected to the world in the right way.

3. When conducting an interview, get into conversational mode as quickly as possible.

4. When you're talking with a candidate, focus on what that candidate actually does.

5. Intelligence is overrated, especially by smart people.

1. Talent is the critical asset in modern economies.

According to one recent estimate, the total value of talent or human capital in the world is about $552 trillion. How we mobilize, identify, and induce talent to reach for greater ambition and greater aspirations is fundamental in determining the success of our societies. If you look at the American economy since 1960, it is estimated that at a bare minimum, 20 to 40 percent of the growth in the US economy has come from the better allocation of talent—in this case, women and minorities.