Merit, Learning, and Talent Acquisition in the AI Era (Part 1: Hire)

Elite admissions may seem far from HR, but David Brooks’s latest essay holds surprising lessons for business leaders. In an era where AI excels at the tidy, testable parts of knowledge work, the premium shifts to judgment, collaboration, and creativity. In this piece (Part 1 of my Talent Lifecycle series), I translate Brooks’s insights into practical guidance for hiring: how to evaluate portfolios (with AI transparency), run collaborative auditions, build rubrics that measure traits like curiosity and resilience, and stop relying on vibes and pedigrees. The résumé can be lovely, but the portfolio is where the truth lives.