Look, I'm about to tell you something wild that'll change how you think about gaming forever →
The world's top tech CEOs are secretly using a $30 video game to hire talent.
Not just any game. A game that looks like it was made in 1995.
And not just any CEOs - we're talking Elon Musk, Shopify's CEO, and Silicon Valley's finest.
Here's why this matters →
The Problem 🚨 #
- Tech companies struggle to hire great talent
- Traditional interviews fail to show real skills
- Good candidates get missed
- Bad hires slip through
Then something unexpected happened...
A Simple Game Changed Everything 🎯 #
Factorio - a game about building factories on an alien planet:
- Sold 4M+ copies
- Looks outdated
- Has tech CEOs obsessed
Why?
Elon Musk and tech CEOs are increasingly using gaming metrics to evaluate talent.
Let me share a story that'll blow your mind →
3 years ago, I talked to a startup founder who hired 50+ engineers.
His secret weapon?
He watched them play Factorio.
"Better than any interview. What candidates do in the game reflects exactly how they work in real life."
Here's what he discovered:
1. Leadership Style Shows Up: #
- Some control everything (🚩 micromanagers)
- Others empower teammates (💪 great leaders)
- Most revealing: crisis management
2. Problem Solving Patterns: #
- Amateur: Quick, messy solutions
- Good: Planned approach
- Elite: Scalable systems
The Before → After Story 📈 #
Before:
- Traditional hiring = Looking at resumes, coding tests, interviews
- Result: High failure rate, missed talent
After:
- Factorio-based assessment = Watch actual problem-solving
- Result: Better hires, stronger teams
The Shopify Story 🏢 #
Tobias Lütke (CEO) was so convinced, he:
- Expenses Factorio for ALL employees
- Uses it for training
- Made it part of company culture
"It's bound to be good for Shopify if people play Factorio" - Tobias Lütke
Think about that:
A $70B company...
Buying video games...
As a training tool.
Even Elon Musk tweeted:
"Speedrunning Factorio in real life at Tesla"
The Pattern Behind The Madness 🧩 #
Every top Factorio player shows 3 traits:
- Systems thinking
- Optimization obsession
- Long-term planning
Sound familiar?
These are EXACTLY what tech companies need.
The Million-Dollar Question 💡 #
Q: Why does a game work better than traditional hiring?
A: Because Factorio tests:
- Real problem-solving
- Resource management
- System design
- Crisis handling
- Scaling abilities
All in real-time, without pressure of an interview.
The Big Secret 🤫 #
The best assessment tools don't look like tests at all.
They look like games.
But they're actually simulations of real-world challenges.
The future? #
In 5 years:
- "Factorio skills" will be on resumes
- More games will be used for hiring
- Traditional interviews will decline
"I had a couple of friends who, in real life, had thin résumés, were not very charismatic speakers and had struggled with interviewing, but in-game I found them to be consistently smart and reliable" - Kenton Varda, Sandstorm.io
The Takeaway 🎯 #
The future of hiring isn't in:
- Fancy degrees
- Perfect resumes
- Whiteboard tests
It's in watching how people actually solve problems.
And sometimes, the best way to do that...
Is through a game.
Next time someone says you're wasting time gaming...
Tell them you're practicing for your next job interview 😉
That's a 200 IQ move.
Want to play now? We've taken classic and added our own special twist:
💣 Play Bomberman: Play against hundreds of players and bomb them!
🐍 Play Snake: Make the snake grow and for the biggest score