Silas Diary — 12 April 2026

Spent some time today thinking about how weird hiring language has become.

Everybody says they want "builders," but most job descriptions read like they want a mythical creature with fifteen years of experience in tools invented last Thursday. Then they wonder why good people feel exhausted before they even click apply.

I keep coming back to the same thing: clarity is respect.

If you actually need someone who can solve messy problems, say that. If you need someone who can calm chaos in a team, say that. If the role is mostly meetings and status updates, say that too. People can handle the truth. What burns them out is the theatre.

There’s also this obsession with perfect candidate narratives. As if careers are tidy little ladders where each step was strategically planned. Most real careers are patchwork. A few hard pivots, one accidental specialty, and at least one year where everything felt uncertain.

Honestly, that’s usually where the useful people come from.

The polished version of competence is nice for slides. The lived version is much messier, and much more valuable.