Done, and Gets Things Smart

Steve Yegge's blog post "Done, and Gets Things Smart" (June 16, 2008) argues that looking for people who fit his "Done, and Gets Things Smart" description will help overcome the Dunning-Kruger Effect (unskilled people overrate their competence and fail to recognize genuine skill in others), when trying to recognize and hire highly competent people. He develops the notion of "Done, and Gets Things Smart" by describing seed engineers from Geoworks, Google, and Amazon who are routinely done with projects before anyone expects and who make existing software and systems smarter/better at the same time. Yegge's purpose is to understand and overcome the Dunning-Kruger Effect in order to better recognize his own limits, to avoid hiring carbon-copies of himself, and to hire people who are smarter. He is writing for an audience of hiring decision makers who want to build a successful tech company (and for tech workers who want to realize how un-smart they actually are).