Why Startups Should Only Hire Good StarCraft Players

http://www.helloko.com/2010/09/why-startups-should-only-hire-good-starcraft-players/

by koichi • 16 years ago

34 53 16 years ago

alnayyir5• 16 years ago

I'm gold ranked, but I think the time the person spends honing their craft is important too.

You want to look at what kind of code projects (if you're hiring a programmer) they have in their portfolio that they made of their own accord.

kijun• 16 years ago

Only?

koichi2• 16 years ago

Starcraft 1 players are acceptable too, but I imagine there's a bit of a "you're too old" discrimination associated with it.

mechanical_fish2• 16 years ago

I feel a profound sense of relief that we have moved on from "Why WoW is the New Golf".

I suspect that I might actually be able to play Starcraft without it taking over my life. Though I have so far been loath to test this theory.

koichi2• 16 years ago

Definitely better for that - I can feel good playing one game and stopping, which is essentially 15 minutes or so. I'm glad I never played WoW... sounds like it could be bad in terms of being a big time suck :(

patio112• 16 years ago

I ran a guild for a few years. It was a whole lot more work than running a business, with worse hours and more drama. Also, the loot sucked.

That said: Some people watch TV, some people put petroleum products on dead plant matter using animal hair, some people go watch fat men sing in classical Italian and they would have to read along in the handy little English guide if they hadn't known the plot for the last forty years. I killed imaginary dragons. It was quite fun at the time.

P.S. Not related to Starcraft, but nice job with the Japanese-learning startup. Cheers to your & your students' success with it.

zackattack• 16 years ago

brilliant; insightful; lucid. this piece deserve front page of the utne reader, let alone hacker monthly.

comatose_kid• 16 years ago

It feels forced to me, and kind of content free. You could reasonably make the same argument for any number of activities (eg, being a parent, or playing soccer).

Unsurprisingly, the article focused on the benefits concerned with individual performance, rather than leadership or teamwork.

cageface7• 16 years ago

RTS games always seemed to me like nothing so much as a test of how much manual busy work somebody will tolerate.

If I were to hire people based on their ability to play any game, it would be Go.

pclark6• 16 years ago

Starcraft is probably as close to Go as you'll get as a video game.

angstrom• 16 years ago

Particularly when one compares the aspects of scouting, harassing, turtling, and expanding to the similar goals of Go to control board territory, eliminate enemy stones, and defend strong holds.

The real difference is in Starcraft you're dynamically adjusting to your opponent's strategy in real time with fog-of-war obscuring your view and no benefit of a turn based cadence.

navyrain• 16 years ago

StarCraft players do not have a monopoly on the virtues listed in this article.

alnayyir5• 16 years ago

http://hackerne.ws/item?id=1661890

lotharbot• 16 years ago

Mastering an extracurricular activity can be very good for your work ability. This article's list is StarCraft-focused, but similar lists could be made for several other games. NetHack taught me to type thousands of characters in a row without making a mistake or losing focus, and to use absolutely every resource; Descent taught me to visualize space and motion; Left 4 Dead taught me how to stay cool under pressure.

We need not limit ourselves to games, either. How many useful skills does one acquire in the process of becoming a quality musician, playing competitive sports, or raising a child?

I wouldn't advocate only hiring good StarCraft players, but I would advocate looking for people who are awesome at something.

pclark6• 16 years ago

> We need not limit ourselves to games, either

I think the opposite - that is, why is it impressive that someone is a good piano player, whereas being a top Starcraft player, not so much.

cageface7• 16 years ago

One cultivates the head and the heart, the other only the head.

psyklic• 16 years ago

Because most people enjoy practicing Starcraft, but few enjoy practicing the piano.

ojbyrne• 16 years ago

Without too much effort I can translate this to:

- only hire white males

- under 25

- without much of s social life beyond other < 25 year old males

- but if your target market is under 25 males and you don't plan to deal with government laws that will screw you because of the the bigotry.

Then you're good.

pclark6• 16 years ago

you just described most startups.

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

Considering the immense popularity of Starcraft in Korea, should I take this statement to mean all Koreans who play Starcraft are actually white males?

coryl2• 16 years ago

Asians love Starcraft too. Hell, everyone loves starcraft.

chrischen• 16 years ago

That's a huge generalization. Different games test different skills. Some skills apply to things like startups, some don't.

Disclaimer: I suck at starcraft, so naturally I disagree with this post.

SkyMarshal• 16 years ago

Damn, here I am trying to learn Haskell and master Lisp, and it's really getting good at Starcraft I should be focusing on.

alnayyir5• 16 years ago

The point is that you're taking the time to master something in your free time because you enjoy it. StarCraft 2 just happens to be something relatable to the author.

You're fixating on the individual pebbles when you're supposed to see the mosaic he made.

That's the problem with kitschy blog material that gets a lot of attention, 80% of your audience goes off into la-la on the irrelevant minutiae.

shadowfox• 16 years ago

> That's the problem with kitschy blog material that gets a lot of attention, 80% of your audience goes off into la-la on the irrelevant minutiae.

Perhaps if titles/analogies/content were more sensical ....

xal• 16 years ago

Like I said in the other thread, I started Shopify build it up to 30 something employees and run it as CEO.

I play Starcraft2 right now and am usually in the top 10 of my diamond league. In fact the company is almost completely stacked with video game players. The article here is probably not taking itself very seriously but it's definitely close to what I've done ( unconsciously ) and it works extremely well.

It sounds silly but the day to day work of a CEO isn't very different from playing a game of Starcraft.

Before starting a startup I used to compete in many gaming tournaments. Not sure if that helped me much in preparation for becoming a CEO but it definitely got me started on programming. My first programming project was to decode the network protocol of quakeworld and create a proxy server that could inject all sorts of useful information into the network stream. Cool stuff.

pclark6• 16 years ago

you should have put in your battle.net ID and that Shopify is hiring :P

jacoblyles• 16 years ago

I'm sorry, but being good at Starcraft only means that you're good at Starcraft.

Qz2• 16 years ago

I love how prefixing a statement with 'I'm sorry' has been transformed into meaning the exact opposite...

influx• 16 years ago

It's cool how prefixing a statement with 'I love' has been transformed into meaning the exact opposite...

dgallagher• 16 years ago

- Good StarCraft Players Play StarCraft All The Time, And Don't Invent And Build Real Things.

- Good StarCraft Players Know How To Configure Their Video Card Settings, Making Them Savvy Enough To Deploy And Manage Business Servers.

- Good StarCraft Players Master A Small Predictable Walled Garden, Not The Vast Outside Ever-Changing World Of Business.

Seriously. Using that logic, you can make the argument that a porn star who has a high PPM (penetrations per minute) should be hired by startups. ;)

alnayyir5• 16 years ago

I think the greater point here is that you should hire people who have a real passion and knack for something in their life that isn't necessarily what you're hiring them for.

Given the choice between two mostly equal candidates, I'd choose the one that could wax philosophic about StarCraft 2 or their boat building project.

tshtf• 16 years ago

The article is interesting, but short on evidence.

Has anyone in academia performed psychometric testing on game players versus non-game players?

coryl2• 16 years ago

Fun article, I agree the same principles in the article can be applied to many skill based hobbies.

The thing I love about Starcrack is how dynamic each game can be. The three races are so different and unique, yet balanced. There are so many different ways a game can end; there is a counter to every counter. You have to manage economy. You have to manage army production. Technology upgrades, information reconnaissance, micro-harassment, army positioning. Your brain has to be on top of everything, and you have to make decisions quick.

Its like compressing your startup work-life into a 20 minute simulation. Its kind of crazy, I actually get a bit of adrenaline and nervousness from wanting to win so badly.

0abdd0e66h• 16 years ago

Have any of you detractors even played starcraft? I'd like you to try it. For all intents and purposes, starcraft (or any other real time strategy game) is essentially training for effective resource allotment, time based strategic planning, and command/control skill. All managers should be have to be excellent players.

SebMortelmans• 16 years ago

I've did a lot of gaming when I was younger, and always on a super competitive level. I think it's more that personality trait of close to obsessive competitivity that translates into being good employees, or anything they put their mind to for that matter. Some of the things you list are very concrete in-game examples, but I feel can all be summarized as a result of people taking the game more "serious". But you definitely have a point.

Would I ever mention anything about my gaming history on a job interview though? Unless I know the interviewer would be really into it, sadly, no.

abraham• 16 years ago

This title gave me my biggest smile tonight :)

ztay• 16 years ago

Love it! "They know when to Expand"

Why Startups Should Only Hire Good StarCraft Players

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