Juan Benet revives Zuckerberg's rule: only hire people you'd work for
juanbenet · x · 2026-10-19
Juan Benet, creator of IPFS, highlights a hiring principle Mark Zuckerberg has voiced for years but is rarely quoted: only hire direct reports you would be willing to work for. He pairs it with Zuckerberg's warning that fast-growing startups always face the trap of settling for the decent person in front of them instead of holding out for someone better.
Benet argues that applying this principle recursively could concentrate extraordinary talent and reach a "talent critical mass" — citing the Manhattan Project, Bell Labs in its prime, and early Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic as examples. The principle, however, has never survived hyper-growth hiring pressure. His bet: with AI, teams can now stay small and hire slowly enough to actually apply it.
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