Marc Andreesen is back with a terrific blog. It's only been in the works for 4.5 days and he already has 7 great posts. My favorite thus far is How to hire the best people you've ever worked with. Marc breaks the hiring criteria extremely well…
I define drive as self-motivation – people who will walk right
through brick walls, on their own power, without having to be asked, to
achieve whatever goal is in front of them… I think you can see drive in
a candidate's eyes, and in a candidate's background… If you can't find
anything – if a candidate has just followed the rules their whole
lives, showed up for the right classes and the right tests and the
right career opportunities without achieving something distinct and
notable, relative to their starting point – then they probably aren't
driven. And you're not going to change them.
This is of course coming from a company who has a horrific track record when it comes to hiring.