Warren Buffett's Efficient Networking Filter

Shaan Puri shares a story about Warren Buffett's approach to networking and judging people.

"Monesh Pabrai met Warren Buffett and asked, 'Warren, you're a great judge of people. How do you do it? How did you get your people radar so good?'

Warren replied, 'I don't think I have a good people radar. What I have is a very tight filter.'

He explained, 'If you take me to a cocktail party and let me talk to 100 people for 5 minutes each, in that 5 minutes I could probably identify the worst 5 or 7 people and tell you these people are lousy, don't hire them. And the best 5 or 7 people I could probably identify too. The other 85-90 people, I couldn't make a judgment on in 5 minutes. It wasn't obvious to me, so I put them all in the no pile.'

When asked if that's harsh, Warren said, 'The cost of bringing a not-great person into my circle of life is so high, while the cost of discarding somebody who might be great is very low comparatively. So I am willing to be a very harsh grader of people. You're either obviously in, or I put you in the too hard to tell bucket and lump you in with all the obvious nos.'"