Full transcript
0:00everyone same happens here and in
0:02today's video I want to talk to you
0:04about the ingredients of success and why
0:09if you put garbage in you'll get garbage
0:12out right so first of all why this is
0:18important and why you should listen to
0:20this video so recently I've been doing a
0:24lot of job interviews and I've honestly
0:27been talking to about 20 to 30 people
0:29every single week and I think I've
0:31talked to about 436 people in total so
0:35far and you know that's a lot of job
0:37interviews and what I'm really looking
0:40for is you know really smart people
0:42really talented people who are
0:44hardworking and who have got what it
0:45takes to join our team and you know
0:49solve the challenging problems that
0:51we're trying to solve and on these job
0:55interviews
0:55you know I'm tasked with with basically
0:58trying to determine if somebody is smart
1:02and hungry and hardworking and has
1:04strong character and I'm I'm trying to
1:07just determine that in 30 minutes over
1:10the phone with questions right that's
1:12quite challenging it's more challenging
1:15than it sounds like because there are a
1:17lot of false negatives a lot of false
1:19positives and most of the questions I
1:22asked in the beginning were to do with
1:26somebody's outputs and let me show you
1:29exactly what I mean here so let's say we
1:32have a person here who I'm interviewing
1:36right now they've got outputs over here
1:43and they also have inputs over here all
1:50right now what our outputs whoa outputs
1:55in this case could be you know work that
1:57they've done or skills that they have or
2:01you know experience that they possess
2:04from the previous position or their
2:06career right these are the typical
2:08things that people ask questions about
2:12we
2:13it comes to job interviews right they
2:16ask all about the outputs and recruiters
2:20do this too they ask you like well what
2:22skills should this person have and what
2:25type of industry should they have worked
2:27in and also what type of company is what
2:30type of position right they're trying to
2:32get a read and they're trying it to get
2:35a signal and they're trying to optimize
2:38and filter for people who match the
2:42output requirements and why well it's
2:45probably the most simple way to do it
2:47right they call this person is skilled
2:49at that and this person says they're
2:51skilled at that
2:52therefore this person must be a good fit
2:54right the problem with this is that
2:56people can easily lie about this sort of
3:00stuff and they can easily mislead you
3:02you know if you ask someone or do you
3:04have experience with X and they can tell
3:06you here I've got experience with the X
3:08I worked on this project or their
3:09project and it's very hard then to
3:12decipher like does this person actually
3:15have experience or are they just telling
3:17me that they have experience right it's
3:19it's quite difficult and for as long as
3:23I was asking questions about somebody's
3:25outputs I was not able to get an
3:27accurate read on on the candidates I was
3:31talking to and then something you know
3:34really shifted and I started to to
3:39remember this documentary this TV series
3:42called shifts table right and I watched
3:45the first like two episodes of it
3:47because I was just kind of interested in
3:49curious I was like well what makes a
3:52really good chef you know there's ships
3:54that suck that make really disgusting
3:56food right
3:57and then there's ships that are the best
3:59in the world and what makes what
4:03differentiates these two objects right
4:06what is the difference and I was like
4:09maybe these people are really good at
4:10preparation maybe they've got different
4:12methodologies different tactics
4:14different sequencing of different
4:17actions they take and I was really quite
4:20curious and so I started watching this
4:22documentary and within the first two
4:25episodes I already
4:27figured it out like what's what created
4:30the world's best ships was their ability
4:35to source ingredients right and so what
4:39makes the best tasting food the best
4:42ingredients right and so really it was
4:45this the same thing like if we look at
4:49here if we have you know if we're
4:53looking at the world's bishops and then
4:55if we have meal here right that could be
5:02wait let me redraw this so world's beer
5:05ship let's put them here this is the
5:09chef and then let's say the output is
5:14the meal well what are the inputs right
5:21and the inputs would be different
5:25ingredients I was writing ingredients
5:31and so the best ships in the world were
5:35the best at sourcing the best
5:37ingredients and they took this to such
5:39an extreme that most of their time was
5:42actually spent out there on the road
5:44traveling around and trying to find the
5:47best ingredients some shifts took it to
5:50the extreme that they started their own
5:52farm I'm not talking they started their
5:55own farm and when they were looking for
5:57a farm what do you think they were doing
5:59they were looking for the ingredients
6:01what ingredients makes a good fun well
6:04what are the constituent parts of a farm
6:06I mean we've basically got land earth
6:08dirt and so what makes good land right
6:13and so it comes back to what crops have
6:16lived on on this land and also what is
6:20the climate and the you know the weather
6:23patterns and things for this land and
6:25also what the what historically has this
6:31land had fed into it
6:32like what fertilizers pesticides
6:35chemicals things like that right so even
6:38when we're trying to find a good farm
6:40look at the inputs to a farm and we look
6:42at you know the quality of the land the
6:44quality of the dirt and then we look at
6:47the quality of the other objects on that
6:49land and then we're able to get a good
6:52farm because it's got good land and then
6:54once we've got a good farm with good
6:56land then we want to raise animals on it
7:00in the best way possible and then we we
7:03need a good farm with good earth so that
7:06we can grow good plants on it so that
7:07the animals can eat the good plants
7:10right so what makes a good animal will
7:13it's their food their what their eating
7:15day to day in their environment that
7:17they're living in right and so the
7:21environment and the food is the inputs
7:23of an animal and that determines you
7:26know the how good that food is when it
7:29ends up on your plate and so a lot of
7:31these shifts they they really focused
7:34and obsessed about inputs so while a lot
7:37of people including myself used to think
7:41that you know a good chef what makes the
7:45bishop in the world well I thought it
7:46was probably some of their methods for
7:49preparing a meal right probably like
7:52some kind of like chopping technique or
7:55I don't know
7:57I really had no idea but I thought it
7:59would probably be something to do with
8:01their technique and their method and
8:03upon further investigation I found that
8:07to be false and really what it was all
8:12about was about the ingredients the
8:17inputs and so we're always doing these
8:21interviews it took me probably 300
8:23interviews to realize that so I was like
8:25this is giving me flashbacks of this
8:27scenario here you know what makes the
8:30best meal or the best ingredients and
8:32really it reminds me of a term that's
8:35commonly used in the software
8:38engineering world and that is garbage in
8:41garbage out right and what it basically
8:44means is that outputs derive from inputs
8:50and so here if we have
8:54a system could be anything and then here
8:58we have inputs and then here we have
9:04outputs all right then the quality of
9:13the inputs here determine the quality of
9:16the outputs over here and if you put
9:19garbage in you will get garbage out so
9:23if we have and why this is common in the
9:26software engineering world is because
9:28sometimes people believe that if you
9:32create a really good system but let's
9:34say we have this really good tracking
9:36system it's got a I machine learning and
9:38all of these other bloody buzz words in
9:40it right and so it's this it's this
9:42mobile optimized mobile first
9:45cryptocurrency tracking optimization
9:48machine learning algorithm artificial
9:51intelligence Bitcoin engine right some
9:54kind of crap like that so they think
9:56that you know because we have this
9:58amazing system it can do anything it
10:01doesn't even matter what inputs you feed
10:03it you can just just give it nothing you
10:05know just just put just a bunch of
10:08made-up numbers into it and it will tell
10:09you the truth right no such thing exists
10:13but it doesn't matter how good the
10:15system is if you feed it garbage it will
10:20output garbage solve you input X you get
10:25X and even with a lower quality system
10:30you can input like you can input good
10:34data and you can get good data out right
10:39and so a common fallacy in the software
10:42engineering world is forgetting this
10:45it's forgetting that the quality of a
10:49systems outputs are really fundamentally
10:52determined by the quality of its inputs
10:54and sometimes will actually quite a lot
10:57of the time almost all of the time your
10:59time as an engineer or a systems
11:02architect is better spent sanitizing
11:05inputs then it is
11:07fancy processes to deal with disparate
11:10sources of messy and dirty inputs right
11:14because of garbage in garbage out now
11:18why I tell you this is because we come
11:22back to this so I'm doing these job
11:24interviews and I do 300 of them or
11:26something and I've been asking questions
11:28about outputs like God you have this
11:30skill and you have that thing and all of
11:32this and I realized that this was a
11:36really poor way to measure and it was a
11:39really poor way to interview people and
11:41that reminded me of this documentary
11:45called chefs table where you know the
11:48ingredients of the food determines the
11:50quality of the meal right and the
11:53world's best chefs were the best sources
11:54of ingredients and so then that reminded
11:57me of the garbage in garbage out thing
11:59and then that led me to do a little bit
12:03of research and what I was really
12:05interested in was the social networks of
12:10geniuses and so I actually found a guy
12:15and his name is Dean Simonton DEA in
12:19SIEM int Oh in and this guy Dean he
12:23spent quite a lot of time studying and
12:26analyzing like historic documents and
12:29journals and records from the world's
12:32greatest geniuses like Einstein Newton
12:35Galileo and Copernicus and all of these
12:40different geniuses and what he was
12:42interested in was how are these geniuses
12:46interconnected through a social web or a
12:49social graph over time right and what he
12:53found was actually quite fascinating and
12:55I'll draw this for you very quickly what
13:02he basically found was that geniuses are
13:07created by the inputs all right the same
13:12thing occurs so we need looked at Isaac
13:16Newton and I'll put Newton here
13:19when he looked at Isaac Newton he wanted
13:23to see well who were the inputs of Isaac
13:26Newton
13:26what constituent parts or war materials
13:29or source materials and ingredients were
13:33consumed by Newton's mind and then
13:36processed and mixed together to output
13:39the genius that was Newton
13:41right and so he studied this and he
13:45looked for relationships between all of
13:47these different geniuses over time and
13:49what he found was fascinating he found
13:51that Newton had roughly fourteen idols
13:55right and if we come out here we're
13:58looking at idols and he found that
14:03Newton was he learned a lot from Bacon
14:07Copernicus Galileo and Kepler and about
14:12ten other famous scientists and people
14:15who had come before him right
14:17these were incredible influences to
14:20Newton and he consumed their work and he
14:23got to really stand on the shoulder of
14:26the Giants that came before him and
14:28that's why there is their quote that
14:30Newton he himself said and he said if I
14:33have seen further it is by standing on
14:37the shoulder of giants all right well
14:39that's what he means by this is that in
14:41more simpler terms Newton could have
14:43said garbage in garbage out outputs
14:46derive from inputs my output which you
14:49believe is genius was derived from input
14:52of genius right and so Newton's inputs
14:57were previous geniuses and then what's
14:59interesting is that Newton's outputs
15:03actually created more geniuses so if we
15:07are now to look at people like geniuses
15:12who came after Newton they had been
15:16influenced by Newton so if we look at
15:18iron stein
15:19so Einsteins greatest influence had been
15:23Isaac Newton's work right
15:25even though Isaac Newton was hundreds of
15:28years before Einstein Newton was the
15:31greatest influence
15:32on Einstein and so how was Einstein so
15:37smart how was he such a genius how did
15:39he do the things he did a lot of people
15:41tend to think oh well he was just a
15:44genius he was born with it you know and
15:47that's not true because at birth
15:49I'm sure if anyone tried to even ask
15:52Einstein a question he would not have
15:54been able to comprehend it or respond
15:56because at birth Einstein did not even
15:59understand English or could speak right
16:02so he most certainly did not know like
16:05all the things that he did later in life
16:10at birth and so how did he become like
16:12that
16:13well inputs right what were his inputs
16:17well he was influenced by Newton who
16:19were Newton's inputs right well he was
16:22influenced by bacon and Copernicus and
16:24Kepler and Galileo right and so it
16:27doesn't matter what we're looking at it
16:30doesn't matter if we're looking at a
16:31computer system or a software or a
16:34tracking system or if we're looking at
16:37just a person's ability to make a good
16:39decision right if I could be the best
16:42decision maker in the world but if I get
16:45bad information that's inaccurate then
16:48I'm going to optimize the best course of
16:52action given the information that I've
16:55been fed and because the information
16:57I've been fed is wrong it doesn't matter
17:00how good I am at optimizing these
17:01variables my decision even though I
17:04think I've absolutely chosen the best
17:06course of action it is wrong
17:08not because of my ability to make
17:11decisions but because of my ability to
17:13gather the best information eg inputs
17:18right so it doesn't matter what we're
17:20looking at outputs derive from inputs
17:22garbage in garbage out and this again
17:28brings me back to these 300 interviews
17:31that I've been doing trying to find
17:32really smart people and so I was asking
17:35these questions about the outputs and
17:37then I had a little flashback and I was
17:40like oh yeah that shift stable
17:44documentary where the ingredients
17:45created
17:46his meals and garbage in garbage out
17:49from the software and systems world oh
17:51yeah and then I discovered this social
17:56network of the world's most famous
17:58geniuses and then I realized that I've
18:03been looking at the wrong thing I have
18:05been looking over here at these peoples
18:08outputs and I should know better I
18:12should be looking at their inputs so I
18:19decided to start asking questions about
18:23this instead of this and you're probably
18:27thinking well what sort of questions do
18:28you ask to determine inputs right well
18:32what sort of you know I started thinking
18:35back to how did I learn the things that
18:37I know and I can always trace them back
18:40to key objects right so there is
18:44different projects I've worked on where
18:46I've had different experiences that have
18:48taught me a lot of lessons so it could
18:50have been projects or problems or
18:53challenges faced right it could also be
18:56mentors and mentors could be different
19:00people that I worked with on my team or
19:02it could be people who I paid to join a
19:04mastermind or other people who I've come
19:07into contact with and then there's also
19:10books so books can be great sources of
19:13information you know there are a few
19:15books that have influenced my life in a
19:18massive way more than any individual
19:21human has right and then there's also
19:24courses you know there's there's online
19:27courses I've taken mastermind groups
19:29things like that and then there's just
19:31friends and really your network your
19:35local network of the the people around
19:37you so like your the five people you
19:39spend the most time with and talk to the
19:41most there's those people and really
19:45these are the things that shape like
19:49your ability and your intelligence right
19:52and a lot of people teams to look at
19:54intelligences like oh it's just this
19:56person's brain and their ability to
19:58process stuff right
20:00that it's kind of true but not really
20:02mostly it's because they've had really
20:04good inputs and they've been exposed to
20:06really good inputs and when you put good
20:10things in good things come out just like
20:12we saw in this social network of genius
20:14if you put genius and genius comes out
20:16you put garbage in garbage comes out
20:18right now what I'll do is beneath this
20:20video in the resources section I will
20:22include the the actual social network
20:26image or diagram for Newton and for a
20:32couple of other famous scientists and
20:35some of the world's greatest geniuses so
20:37that you can see this the actual work
20:40that I looked at here because it is
20:42quite interesting so they don't be
20:44beneath the video in the resources
20:45section now we get back to this so I
20:50started asking questions about inputs
20:52and I started asking like instead of
20:56saying do you have the skill and are you
20:58good at this and can you do this right
20:59which I got really bad answers before I
21:02started asking what who is your idol
21:07when it comes to field right so who is
21:11your idol when it comes to software
21:13engineering or who is somebody that has
21:17influenced the way you think about and
21:20the way you write software right so that
21:23that was one of the questions and this
21:26was a really fascinating question to ask
21:27because one you couldn't really lie
21:31about this question when I was asking
21:34the outputs one do you have the skill
21:35people would say yes or something like
21:38that right and it's very easy to say yes
21:40but when I say has anyone influenced you
21:43the person could say no or yes but I
21:48can't remember anybody's names or they
21:50could say yes and they would be able to
21:53recall the exact people who had
21:56influenced them perfectly by name and
21:58what things they'd learn from each
22:00person right and so this is when this
22:04process got really fascinating for me
22:05because the people who weren't very good
22:08at all they could never recall any names
22:11some said they weren't influenced
22:14for anyone or some said I live have been
22:15influenced by a lot of people and they
22:17can't really recall any of their names
22:18and just think about that for a moment
22:20you know imagine that you've been in
22:22this specific example some of these
22:25people had been software engineers for
22:27twenty years and they couldn't tell me a
22:30single person's name who had influenced
22:33them in their work now if someone can't
22:37recall a name if somebody who's
22:38influenced them and they've been doing
22:39it for 20 years this person obviously
22:41doesn't care all right and so I found a
22:45very strong and direct relationship and
22:49correlation between the clarity and the
22:54ability for somebody to recall who has
22:58influenced them and their work and the
23:00way they think and the actual put and
23:03the person's like objective output and
23:06raw skill level alright another question
23:09I asked was what books have taught you
23:13the most of our X and X could be filled
23:15so it could be you know what books have
23:17taught you the most about media buying
23:20what books have taught you the most
23:21about sales what books have taught you
23:23the most about customer support what
23:25books have taught you the most about
23:26software engineering right and then just
23:29be quiet and I just wait now some people
23:32say oh I don't know I can't remember any
23:36bad sign right but if you ask me saying
23:39what books have influenced you oh my god
23:41alright I can recall so many and I would
23:45happily talk to you about those books in
23:47great detail
23:49hundreds of them and I'd be able to tell
23:51you what I learned from each one and I'd
23:53be able to tell you how I discovered
23:54that book what I learned from that book
23:57how I implemented some of those
23:59learnings from that book in practice and
24:01how those learnings further developed
24:05and further evolved and also how I from
24:09that book discovered another book that
24:11taught me these other things that I then
24:13discovered this other book and in this
24:15other book and from that original book I
24:17discovered what inputs created that book
24:19so I would study the author and then
24:21what influences that author had had in
24:25order to take that
24:26and create this book right so I could go
24:30into ridiculous detail about these books
24:34and that is that's what's taught me you
24:38know what I know or different courses
24:40and that like that's what's taught me
24:42what I know so my output my results and
24:45my ability now and my skill level and
24:49all of that it's not really a function
24:52of of me being born with any any type of
24:57skill it's more a function of the
25:00quality of the inputs that I have been
25:03in contact with over my life
25:05all right and I've had the had the I've
25:12had the what do we call it the privilege
25:14of coming into contact with really great
25:17inputs and I make it a real priority of
25:21mine to find the best inputs and consume
25:24them and try to ignore and shut out all
25:28the bad inputs because you know bad
25:30inputs can rot away good inputs right
25:34and so when I started asking these
25:38questions if people couldn't tell me
25:39anybody who's influenced them or who
25:42they've idolized and if they couldn't
25:45tell me any books then pretty much with
25:49100% certainty and I know that nothing
25:52is a hundred percent certain but what I
25:54mean by saying that is extreme certainty
25:57there's almost well there was no case
25:59where this failed right so far over a
26:03over a collection of roughly a hundred
26:05interviews that I've done since this
26:08realization and nobody who couldn't
26:11recall a book or an influencer was any
26:16good and a lot of the people who were
26:20good were able to recall with clarity
26:23the influences in the books that had
26:26taught them a lot and it's not always
26:28books sometimes it's bloggers or YouTube
26:32channel or it might be an academic paper
26:34or white paper something like that write
26:37it or an article it doesn't always have
26:40to be
26:41books but the question I ask is books
26:43and that has been probably one of the
26:47biggest breakthroughs that I've made so
26:49far in trying to recruit and hire really
26:52talented people I have switched from
26:54asking questions about outputs and
26:56instead ask questions of our inputs
26:58because it's very hard to make up
27:01someone's name on the spot it's very
27:03hard to make up a books name on the spot
27:05try and do it you will fail at it right
27:07and this is a great way to interview
27:11people so I encourage you if you have a
27:14business and you're hiring people try to
27:17ask questions that relate to the
27:19individuals inputs not their outputs and
27:22then you will start to make leaps and
27:24bounds ahead at filtering out the the
27:29really good people and this lesson
27:32really goes deeper than this it's not
27:34just about how I learned this and
27:37improved my recruitment process at my
27:39company it's also about you because you
27:44might you might be an employee or you
27:47might be an entrepreneur who's just
27:50starting out or you might be an
27:52entrepreneur who's starting out already
27:53got some traction but you don't have any
27:57customers yet and you're not you're not
27:58well you've got some customers but
28:00you're not hiring a team yet right and
28:01so a lot of people they always want to
28:05know how do I get better how do I get to
28:06that next level how do I grow how do I
28:09make more money how do I get smarter how
28:11do i improve right and my answer to you
28:16for that question is to focus on your
28:20inputs not your outputs so really take
28:27an audit of your inputs like who are the
28:32five people that you spend the most time
28:34with what books have you read what
28:39information do you consume for example
28:42do you spend most of your time on
28:44Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and
28:47watching the news on CNN and things like
28:51that because if you do then I can
28:54guarantee you
28:54that your brain is rotting away it is
28:58absolutely rotting and disintegrating at
29:00a rapid rate and at the output that is
29:03coming out of that it's nothing you're
29:08probably delusional probably spouting
29:11off on social media about like
29:14Donald Trump and Flat Earth and all
29:18sorts of crap and probably just one of
29:22these people that I see on social media
29:24that has suffered immense brain decay
29:27due to really bad inputs right and it's
29:32not really that you're you're not smart
29:36and it's not really that you haven't
29:39been lucky it's mostly that you've been
29:42feeding your brain and so what
29:45you've got the and so really if you
29:50want to find the people who are really
29:54talented or if you yourself want to
29:56become really talented and successful
29:57you have to focus on the inputs what is
30:01going into your brain who are the five
30:02people you spend the most time with who
30:04your mentors who are massive influences
30:07that have shaped the way you think about
30:10in the way you do your work and what
30:13books have you read that have taught you
30:16the most right if you can't name books
30:19and if you can't name influences in the
30:21way that you do your work and everything
30:23if you also don't have mentors and the
30:26people the five people you spend the
30:28most time with if they're not really
30:31going anywhere then this isn't really
30:34news but it will be probably received as
30:37news for you right now you ain't going
30:39anywhere
30:39right you have to make sure that your
30:42inputs are good like raise the average
30:45of race the like aggregate and talent
30:48intelligence level of the five people
30:50that you spend the most time with you
30:51will get smarter right stop going on
30:54social media and start reading books
30:56instead stop watching marathon Netflix
30:59series and start enrolling in some
31:01courses instead stop going out and
31:04drinking and talking about stupid
31:07and
31:08early hours of the morning and start
31:10going to sleep early and reading and
31:14learning and growing your mind instead
31:16of poisoning it and punishing it right
31:18and really focus on your inputs because
31:22garbage in garbage out and this it
31:26doesn't matter what you're looking at in
31:28the world anywhere if it is in the
31:30universe and it is observable even if
31:32it's virtual or in atoms or bits it
31:35doesn't matter this law remains true and
31:39so this is one of those cool universal
31:41laws and universal principles that you
31:44can use and apply to anything that you
31:47want in life so if you want to get
31:49better focus on your inputs if you want
31:51to find really good people to hire what
31:53are their inputs ask them and if you're
31:56trying to help other people get better
31:57inputs always inputs get them right
32:00outputs will follow so that's it for
32:03this video I hope you enjoyed it hope
32:05you learned something and if you did
32:07just click that like button and also
32:11subscribe to my channel here I release
32:14the video like this once every week on a
32:16Tuesday as well as customer interviews
32:19and live stream Q&A s with my customer
32:23community and also let me know what you
32:25thought in the comments section below if
32:27you liked it if you want to give me some
32:29feedback or if you've got any questions
32:30just put there in the comment section
32:32below
32:33so thanks for watching and I'll see you
32:35in the next one soon