Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross's guide to identifying exceptional talent — combining unconventional interview techniques, personality assessment, and the economics of human capital.

Against conventional hiring: most hiring practices (résumé screening, credential checking, conventional interviews) are poor predictors of extraordinary performance. Cowen and Gross argue for spotting 'strangeness' — unconventional thinkers, people with unusual trajectories, those who pursue their interests without social validation. Key questions: ask candidates about their childhood hobbies, what they do on weekends, what they're most afraid of becoming. The book is as much a meditation on what talent is as a practical guide.