# The filters
Introduction · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/00-02-the-filters.html

"There's no talent here."

Usually there is. The filter just doesn't let it through.

These filters run when you hire, when you hand someone a problem, when you choose who to train. They also run on you, when you wonder whether you're good enough.

**Network**

You look where you always look, among people you already know.

That's the one I ran.

Look instead at: who keeps the services you rely on running.

**Title**

Degree, job title, last employer's name.

They tell you where someone has been.

Look instead at: a problem they solved, in their own words.

**Years**

Ten years of experience can mean ten years of growth. Or one year, repeated ten times.

Look instead at: what they can do today that they couldn't two years ago.

**Spare time**

We reward people who learn in the evenings and on weekends.

We pass over those who don't have that time, and call it a lack of drive.

Look instead at: what they learn when they're given the time.

**Elsewhere**

Best practice always seems to come from a better-known company, another country.

The local service that has quietly held up for years never gets studied.

Look instead at: what works here, and why.

**Visibility**

Whoever presents well passes for whoever works well.

The work that prevents problems stays invisible.

Look instead at: what wouldn't have held up without them.

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Once you name a filter, you can swap it for a better test.

The rest of the book gives you those tests: to spot builders, to grow them, and to become a better one.