Why Thiel's Question Falls Short
§1: The Indirect Question
In my last post Nobody Has Original Thoughts- I presented Peter Thiel’s favorite interview question:
What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
Like all interview questions, this one sucks.
At least, it sucks if you are looking for a legitimate insight or answer. The premise behind this question is that being a contrarian is fundamentally good, which Peter Theil probably (?) does not believe.
What Peter Thiel is actually asking is “are you self-aware and an independent thinker”.
However, imagine an interview that goes like this:
OK now we are on to the two most important questions:
Are you self aware
Can you think independently?
The reflexive answer (if you want the job) to both of those is an immediate “YES”! However, what use is that? Even if you told a single story to go with that “yes”, there may be a million stories that prove that a truthful person would say “no”.
So, Peter Thiel’s question is necessary , despite it not directly asking the proper question. Plus, you will sometimes get interesting answers.
§2: The Bad Question
What makes a question bad?
To me, a bad question is one where the answer does not matter. As in, nobody’s thoughts or actions will (likely) change because of the answer.
Some questions are, of course, not meant to provoke anything but are instead pleasantries (how’s the weather, how are you).