Dharmesh Shah distinguishes between two types of jerks: those whose intensity and questioning serve problem-solving, and those driven by ego who belittle others. The difference is intent. Leaders can develop the first kind or fire them, but intent determines which path makes sense.
When you have mistakenly hired a jerk, you have 2 options. One is you can kind of develop them into less jerkiness versus letting them go. And my experience has been there's actually 2 kinds of jerks. Sometimes actually normal, good people manifest as jerks because it's just like they're in their heads and they just come off that way. And in my mind, the discriminating factor of what makes one a jerk and the other one not really is like what they're solving for. There are people that are like, I'm a little bit this way. I'm super analytical and I will question like everything, right? And that's just like academic in me a little bit. But I like to think of myself as not a jerk. And so the difference is, are they being jerky just to belittle someone else? Are they doing it out of their own ego, or are they just doing it because that's just their way of getting inputs or something like that? It's in their nature, but they're still solving for the greater good, right?
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