Drew is a really bright guy, you have to give him credit for standing in front of an audience like that and speaking without any sort of presentation aide.
Most notably, his points about hiring "the best people" (around 20 minutes in) are extremely similar to the notes in the leaked Valve employee handbook on hiring, and the old Jobs quote about "A+ players." For everyone seeking a position somewhere in the industry, the emphasis placed on this element of business is really telling; good people at amazing companies don't want just another guy who can code in C++/Java/D-/ChaiTeaLatte, they want individuals with strengths in all aspects of engineering and business. Thanks for the link, and if Drew still reads HN even though he's in the big time, thanks for the talk and indirect educational advice.
He emphasizes hiring great people essentially because that's the only way you'll be able to hire more great people. He goes on to make the point that if you lower the hiring bar and start hiring lower quality people, that in itself may cause you to lose the best people. This process, he says, is irreversible.
Reed Hastings' slides on Netflix culture[1] from a few years ago also reflect this.
Paraphrasing: If you grow as a company, you encounter more complexity. To handle complexity you can either 1) hire people who are able to stay ahead of it or 2) create killjoy bureaucracy which ultimately drives away innovative people.
The whole deck is worth a once-over at least once a year.
Most notably, his points about hiring "the best people" (around 20 minutes in) are extremely similar to the notes in the leaked Valve employee handbook on hiring, and the old Jobs quote about "A+ players." For everyone seeking a position somewhere in the industry, the emphasis placed on this element of business is really telling; good people at amazing companies don't want just another guy who can code in C++/Java/D-/ChaiTeaLatte, they want individuals with strengths in all aspects of engineering and business. Thanks for the link, and if Drew still reads HN even though he's in the big time, thanks for the talk and indirect educational advice.