If I was hiring, I would only want to hire people smarter and more intelligent than me (read: better qualified to do the job I’m hiring them to do than I am)—although I’m unsure if they would want to work for me in that situation. Incidentally, these are the types of people I prefer to spend my time with.

Would you not also be hugely suspicious of a person who doesn’t say “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”? With ‘standard’ interview questions these phrases shouldn’t be uttered by the intelligent/competent, but during an in-depth and searching discussion on varied topics, I would likely call them mandatory.

Unless, by ‘hanging out with them for a bit’, Swartz is trying to say ‘I only hire my friends’ in which case … well I’m not sure what to make of that.

Personally I judge a person’s smartness by first asking them to tell me about the stuff they do and telling them “I don’t understand” to see how well they can explain it. Many people are good at what they do but can’t apply it in the context they need to. Its no good designing a time machine if you can’t explain how to build it.

Then, I find the point at which they say “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”. If they never say either of those phrases, there’s a small chance they’re wildly smarter than anyone I know or a good chance they’re just bluffing.