> Get your hands dirty (...) the 37signals motto was "don't hire until you've done the job yourself"
Maybe you can hire people this way, for jobs you're already familiar with, or for very low qualification jobs (janitor, maybe, although there are probably tricks of the trade that are non-obvious, even to a "smart"(!) person).
But if you were trained as, say, a programmer, how do you implement this advice to hire a doctor? A lawyer? A typeface designer? A rocket scientist (SpaceX)?
The OP seems to believe that any "smart" person can learn any job in hours.
This is Enron thinking ("the smartest guys in the room"). Less controversially, this is what Marissa Mayer designing the new Yahoo! logo seems to think. It is wrong.
It would have been better for Mrs Mayer, Yahoo! --and the rest of the world-- if she had hired a real designer before attempting to do the job herself.
Maybe you can hire people this way, for jobs you're already familiar with, or for very low qualification jobs (janitor, maybe, although there are probably tricks of the trade that are non-obvious, even to a "smart"(!) person).
But if you were trained as, say, a programmer, how do you implement this advice to hire a doctor? A lawyer? A typeface designer? A rocket scientist (SpaceX)?