HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI

Employers, job seekers, and puzzle lovers everywhere delight in William Poundstone's HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI? "Combines how-to with be-smart for an audience of job seekers, interviewers, Wired-style cognitive science hobbyists, and the onlooking curious. . . . How Would You Move Mount Fuji? gallops down entertaining sidepaths about the history of intelligence testing, the origins of Silicon Valley, and the brain-jockey heroics of Microsoft culture." — Michael Erard, Austin Chronicle "A charming Trojan Horse of a book While this slim book is ostensibly a guide to cracking the cult of the puzzle in Microsoft's hiring practices, Poundstone manages to sneak in a wealth of material on the crucial issue of how to hire in today's knowledge-based economy. How Would You Move Mount Fuji? delivers on the promise of revealing the tricks to Microsoft's notorious hiring challenges. But, more important, Poundstone, an accomplished science journalist, shows how puzzles can — and cannot — identify the potential stars of a competitive company Poundstone gives smart advice to candidates on how to 'pass' the puzzle game Of course, let's not forget the real fun of the book: the puzzles themselves." — Tom Ehrenfeld, Boston Globe "A dead-serious book about recruiting practices and abstract reasoning — presented as a puzzle game Very, very valuable to some job applicants — the concepts being more important than the answers. It would have usefulness as well to interviewers with a cruel streak, and the addicts of mind/ word games." — Michael Pakenham, Baltimore Sun "Poundstone offers canny advice and tips for successfully confronting and mastering this seemingly perverse type of pre-employment torture." — Richard Pachter, Miami Herald "How would you design Bill Gates's bathroom? Now that's one question you've probably never asked anyone in a job interview (or anywhere else). But how an applicant answers it could reveal more about future performance than the usual inquiries about previous positions, accomplishments, goals, and the like. At least that's the thinking at Microsoft, where hundreds of job seekers have been asked the bathroom question as part of the legendary 'interview loop' — a rigorous ritual in which candidates are grilled by their future col- leagues with a barrage of puzzles, riddles, and bizarre hypothetical questions. The process has been one of Microsoft's closely guarded secrets. But science writer William Pound-stone sheds light on it in How Would You Move Mount Fuji?" — TahlRaz,Inc. "A fun, revealing take on an unusual subject At once a study of corporate hiring, an assessment of IQ testing's value, a history of interviewing, and a puzzle book." — Publishers Weekly "This book is not just for those in the job market. Anyone who wants to try some mental aerobics will find it useful and enjoyable Poundstone is a veteran science author who specializes in simplifying complex material. His engaging, easygoing writing style steers readers through difficult material A fun read." — Bruce Rosenstein, USA Today "Science writer Poundstone's eight previous books are based on a single premise: we can choose to use logic, and society can benefit as a result How Would You Move Mount Fuji? would appeal not just to employers and human resources professionals but to anyone who loves a good riddle." — Stephen Turner, Library Journal Also by William Poundstone BIG SECRETS THE RECURSIVE UNIVERSE BIGGER SECRETS LABYRINTHS OF REASON THE ULTIMATE PRISONER'S DILEMMA BIGGEST SECRETS CARL SAGAN: A LIFE IN THE COSMOS HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle HOW THE WORLD'S SMARTEST COMPANIES SELECT THE MOST CREATIVE THINKERS William Poundstone Little, Brown and Company New York Boston Copyright © 2003 by William Poundstone All rights reserved. Little, Brown and Company Time Warner Book Group 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Visit our Web site at www.twbookmark.com Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Company, May 2003 First paperback edition, April 2004 The third quotation onp. vii is used by permission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Huang Binhong (1865-1955); Insects and Flowers; Chinese, dated 1948; Album of ten leaves; ink and color on gold-flecked paper; 12 ½ X14 in. (31.8 X 35.6 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Feme Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986 (1986.267.204a-j). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Poundstone, William. How would you move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's cult of the puzzle : how the world's smartest companies select the most creative thinkers / by William Poundstone. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-316-91916-0 (hc) / 0-316-77849-4 (pb) 1. Employment interviewing. 2. Microsoft Corporation. I. Tide. HF5549.5.I6P682003 658.3'112 —dc21 2002040619 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Q-FF Designed by Meryl Sussman Levavi/Digitext Printed in the United States of America To my father "Like any other value, puzzle-solving ability proves equivocal in application But the behavior of a com munity which makes it preeminent will be very different from that of one which does not." — Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions "As, in a Chinese puzzle, many pieces are hard to place, so there are some unfortunate fellows who can never slip into their proper angles, and thus the whole puzzle becomes a puzzle indeed, which is the precise condition of the greatest puzzle in the world — this man-of-war world itself." — Herman Melville White-Jacket "To understand that cleverness can lead to stupidity is to be close to the ways of Heaven." — Huang Binhong Insects and Flowers Contents 1. The Impossible Question 3 2. The Termans and Silicon Valley 23 3. Bill Gates and the Culture of Puzzles 50 4. The Microsoft Interview Puzzles 78 5. Embracing Cluelessness 91 6. Wall Street and the Stress Interview 111 7. The Hardest Interview Puzzles 118 8. How to Outsmart the Puzzle Interview 121 9. How Innovative Companies Ought to Interview 130 [...]... How Would You Move Mount Fuji? "Your interview could include a technical discussion of the projects you' ve worked on, an abstract design question, or general problem-solving puzzles or brainteasers The types of questions you' ll be asked vary depending on the position you' re looking for, but all are meant to investigate your capabilities and potential to grow It's important for us to find out what you. .. cooking your turkey." "But wouldn't my turkey," asked McKenna, "or any other food, go bad sitting in the microwave while I'm at work? I 6 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? could put a frozen turkey in, hut then it would drip water everywhere." "What other options could the microwave have?" the recruiter asked Pause "For example, you could use the com-puter to download and exchange recipes." "You can do... independence and suspicion of established hierarchies Puzzles are egalitarian, Microsoft's people contend, in that it doesn't matter what school you attended, where you worked before, or how you dress All 12 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? that matters is your logic, imagination, and problem-solving ability For of course Microsoft is an egalitarian meritocracy It is ruthless about hiring what it calls... business It's your next job interview Be prepared to answer questions like these: How many piano tuners are there in the world? If the Star Trek transporter was for real, how would that affect the transportation industry? Why does a mirror reverse right and left instead of up and down? If you could remove any of the fifty U.S states, which would it be? Why are beer cans tapered on the ends? How long would. .. hut office Shockley picked up his stopwatch 4 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? There's a tennis tournament with one hundred twentyseven players, Shockley began, in measured tones You' ve got one hundred twenty-six people paired off in sixty-three matches, plus one unpaired player as a bye In the next round, there are sixty-four players and thirty-two matches How many matches, total, does it take to determine... Where do you see yourself in five years? What do you do on your day off? What's the last book you' ve read? What are you most proud of? Traditional-question interviews walk a tightrope between concealment and disclosure They often invite the candidate to say something "bad" about himself, just to see how far he'll go These questions seem to be about honesty Really, they're about diplomacy What you' re... be your comicbook collection That's not necessarily what the interviewer wants to hear, and you probably know that There are safer answers, such as "the feeling of accomplish-ment I get from doing something — it could be anything —really well." The trouble with the traditional interview is that both sides are wise to the game Practically everyone gives the safe answers 18 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? ... candidates who have experience, the emphasis is on the future tense 20 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft does not have a time machine that lets its human resources people zip ten years into a subjunctive future to see how well a candidate will perform on the job Predictions about future performance are perforce based largely on how well candidates answer interview questions "Microsoft really does... "Define 'intelligence.' Are you intelligent?" This is not a trick question (except in that an affirmative answer to the second part loses its conviction if you flub the first part) What is intelligence, anyway? Lewis Terman and IQ No one has done more to define intelligence and make mental assessments a part of hiring than Stanford psycholo- 24 How Would You Move Mount Fuji? gist Lewis M Terman (1877-1956)... What software would you write to do this?" "Why would you want to dolhat?" asked McKenna "I don't want to go to my refrigerator, get out some food, put it in the microwave, and then run to my computer to start it!" "Well, the microwave could still have buttons on it too." "So why do I want to run it from my computer?" "Well maybe you could make it programmable? For example, you could call your computer . lovers everywhere delight in William Poundstone's HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI? "Combines how- to with be-smart for an audience of job seekers,. of material on the crucial issue of how to hire in today's knowledge-based economy. How Would You Move Mount Fuji? delivers on the promise of revealing