Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
A job post that picked its applicants
A post built to screen
The post was written to be a good standalone post on Twitter and LinkedIn, one worth sharing even by someone who didn't know the poster. A job description is a sales pitch, and the part that matters is disqualifying the people you don't want. A divisive line resonates deeply with the right person and makes others angry.
The top 10 school line
Skills and experience were table stakes, so the post listed traits meant to make the right person feel understood. The line about a top 10 school drew the biggest reaction. Some schools are uncontroversially top 10, and those applicants applied. A few applicants from schools nowhere close simply asserted theirs belonged on the list. Others decided their school didn't count and never applied.
What ideological minority drew
The phrase ideological minority was just as open. Applicants answered with all kinds of readings, many of them about how they stood out at their school rather than politics. A few wrote that the whole thing was nonsense, that they hadn't attended a top 10 school, and that they should be hired anyway. Each reply worked like a piece of an interview, built into the post itself.
Why do vague job posts filter applicants well?
Economist Michael Spence formalized this in his 1973 paper on job market signaling. When employers cannot see a candidate's qualities directly, the choices a candidate makes become a signal. A vague prompt asks the applicant to decide how to interpret it, and that decision shows judgment and confidence. Spence shared the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for this line of work.
Why do divisive messages spread so widely?
A 2017 study led by William Brady at New York University analyzed hundreds of thousands of tweets on political topics. It found that each moral and emotional word in a tweet raised its retweet rate by about 20 percent. The effect stayed mostly inside groups with shared views. Strongly worded posts therefore travel far among like-minded people.
How do self-selection screens work in hiring?
Self-selection means that applicants sort themselves based on how an offer reads, before anyone reviews them. Firms use it with salary ranges, demanding work descriptions, or unusual application steps. Those who think they fit will apply and others will skip it. The employer then reviews a smaller pool that has already filtered itself.
More from Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
