A Quote by Maria Semple
My talent isn't so much in traditional research as in finding really smart people and badgering them with questions.
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Really smart people don't want to say stupid things, and they really don't want to be a part of a PR-engineered interview. People really do want to be smart, and they want smart questions. So, if you ask smart questions, there's no way you can't do well.
Vision is a romantic thing. We have got into 'talent identification'. I am much more interested in passion - finding people who are really excited about doing something.
I know you're smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn't enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone feel happy to be here.
Which questions guide our lives? Which questions do we make our own? Which questions deserve our undivided and full personal commitment? Finding the right questions is crucial to finding the answers.
The talent that has to be learned is finding out what someone's passion is and setting them up to realize that. You don't get the best work from people if you're guiding them versus them guiding themselves.
Marvel is run by some very smart people, and they seem to pride themselves on the fact that they don't just find talent, they groom talent.
I think there's so much talent in Latin America - you know, directors from Mexico and Chile and Colombia - we have so much talent and there are not enough platforms to show our talents, so I'd love to use this and start creating my own endeavors and get all these really talented people together.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The traditional practice is that the justices don't ask the attorney general any questions, so as not to embarrass him. But Bobby Kennedy had let them know that he didn't mind if they asked him questions and they did.
I'm really much better at asking questions than answering them, since asking questions is like a constant deflection of oneself.
As you can probably tell, the push to develop talent in Africa is personal. I grew up there. I played there. I know how much talent there is. We have to concentrate on building facilities, establishing successful leagues and finding investors to help young players.
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
Finding the one right candidate in a group is hard, and companies don't have much time to figure out exactly which questions can help them tell similar-seeming candidates apart.
There are a lot of smart creatures out there. Dolphins, elephants, and whales are smart. And there are some really smart birds. I know some really intelligent fish. But they cannot know what humans know and are incapable of inflicting as much damage.
You can't make people like you under the best of circumstances, and you certainly can't make them like you while you're actively badgering them on what you perceive to be their failures of conscience.
Whenever I'm giving talks, I always ask people to think of the most obscure questions because I enjoy those the most. I always get the same questions: Why does Pickwick say "plock" and will there be a movie? I like the really obscure questions because there's so much in the books. There are tons and tons of references and I like when people get the little ones and ask me about them. It's good for the audience [and also] they realize there's more there.
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