flâneur

Write for Yourself

barry.ooo · 1,058 words · saved by 1 readers

Before making a hire at Hex, we ask a Lead to write up a brief Hiring Thesis. It’s a pretty short thing, explaining why the candidate is exceptional and deserves one of the limited seats on our little boat. It gets sent to their Lead and myself, and we have a chance to ask some questions. These kind of procedural steps can feel like a chore. And, inevitably, I’ve heard murmurings of people saying “I have to write a hiring thesis for Barry.” I get where this is coming from, but I want to share the truth: the doc isn’t for me. I may be an audience for it – but the real utility of the document is for the Lead themselves. And even then, the point isn’t even the written artifact, rather it’s the thinking behind it. If you watched me writing this email right now, you’d see me typing on my keyboard: adding, deleting, editing, and rephrasing. But what you’d really see me doing is thinking. Writing is really just giving structure to your thoughts. As Joan Didion put it, “I write to find out wha

This post is adapted from an internal memo I sent the team at Hex last week. If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking - Leslie Lamport Before making a hire at Hex, we ask a Lead to write up a brief Hiring Thesis. It’s a pretty short thing, explaining why the candidate is exceptional and deserves one of the limited seats on our little boat. It gets sent to their Lead and myself, and we have a chance to ask some questions. These kind of procedural steps can feel like a chore. And, inevitably, I’ve heard murmurings of people saying “I have to write a hiring thesis…

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