Why Thomas Edison served soup at every job interview

A similar story: Admiral Hyman Rickover, the "father of the nuclear Navy," interviewed every single officer and candidate who wanted to become a nuke, because he'd promised Congress that he'd do so. Rickover-interview stories are legendary in the nuke Navy.

(Nearly 50 years later I can still practically recite my own rather-uncomfortable interview with the "KOG" [Kindly Old Gentleman]; someday I should write it up.)

One famous Rickover-interview story is that the admiral would sometimes take the prospect out to lunch in the Crystal City cafeteria — if the prospect salted his food (yes, back then it was his food) before tasting it, then that disqualified the prospect.

Of course, there was always an exception: Another story is that one prospect did indeed salt his food before tasting it, and Rickover immediately told him he wouldn't be accepted into The Program. The prospect responded: Admiral, I work in this building, I eat lunch here every day, I know exactly how they season this dish. According to the story, that changed Rickover's mind; he let the prospect into The Program, in part because the prospect was willing to correct a superior who didn't have all the relevant information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover

HR peeps are gonna lose their minds over this one. such crap! i like lots of pepper. i never met someone who prepared food for me who likes pepper as much as i do. i know for a fact every time it's gonna be under-seasoned to my tastes. what Edison and most employers don't understand is everyone has their own taste. assuming what people know, is just as bad as judging them for making assumptions. this is why employment just sucks. bad ideas generated by bad people. DC? XD

Alternative title: How to fool yourself into thinking that your clever little behavioral observation trick will actually predict candidate job performance.

All you'll end up doing is reinforcing your own biases, adding what basically amounts to a coin flip into the evaluation. This is why we invented the scientific method.