I agree with the parent commenter – it's too on the nose.
If you were concerned about someone's character then you need to ask questions which really help you to understand who the person is – not questions which are easy to game by lying.
I'd argue asking something like someone's opinion on veganism is a better question because it might help you understand how the person thinks about the types of harms Anthropic are concerned about without being such an easy thing to lie about.
Obviously they could say "yeah, I think veganism is good", but someone who actually inhabited that view or was just conflicted about balancing meat consumption and the suffering of animals would probably answer with a lot more nuance that helps you understand how that person thinks about similar kinds of ethical concerns.
Fair, but I disagree. This person is interviewing at Anthropic. If they’ve done a decent job of prep work, they know something about the business, the challenges, possible adjacencies, etc.
Springing “hey what if our core business goes to zero, what then” seems qualitatively different from “what do you think of veganism” as far as learning what someone’s motives are and what their understanding of the core business is.
If I were the interviewer asking that, I would score “oh that’s fine I don’t care about money” exactly the same as “wow I’d be out of here so fast”: total failure.
I think HN folks are imagining the question, imagining the responses, and imagining the interviewers’ criteria. Which, sure, easy to decide it’s a terrible question on that basis.
Comments
What’s the alternative? Selecting people without caring at all about their character?
I agree with the parent commenter – it's too on the nose.
If you were concerned about someone's character then you need to ask questions which really help you to understand who the person is – not questions which are easy to game by lying.
I'd argue asking something like someone's opinion on veganism is a better question because it might help you understand how the person thinks about the types of harms Anthropic are concerned about without being such an easy thing to lie about.
Obviously they could say "yeah, I think veganism is good", but someone who actually inhabited that view or was just conflicted about balancing meat consumption and the suffering of animals would probably answer with a lot more nuance that helps you understand how that person thinks about similar kinds of ethical concerns.
Fair, but I disagree. This person is interviewing at Anthropic. If they’ve done a decent job of prep work, they know something about the business, the challenges, possible adjacencies, etc.
Springing “hey what if our core business goes to zero, what then” seems qualitatively different from “what do you think of veganism” as far as learning what someone’s motives are and what their understanding of the core business is.
If I were the interviewer asking that, I would score “oh that’s fine I don’t care about money” exactly the same as “wow I’d be out of here so fast”: total failure.
I think HN folks are imagining the question, imagining the responses, and imagining the interviewers’ criteria. Which, sure, easy to decide it’s a terrible question on that basis.