Google: GPAs are worthless

CNET reports:

Google has finally decided that academic excellence is just that -- academic.

You may have managed people or merely been to college and surveyed the local bars.

You will therefore realize that the academically bright might not be the most practical, the most worldly or, indeed, the most anything -- except the most proficient at passing utterly pointless examinations of their memory.

But human experience isn't good enough for Google. It must have data to tell it what to do.

So Bock was kind enough to admit that it was data -- lots of very, very big data -- that led him to this conclusion.

The only slight correlation between supposed brains and real-world ability that his spreadsheets and algorithms suggested involved fresh-faced college graduates. But even this doesn't seem terribly significant.

You may now compose your hoary hosannas to this breakthrough for humankind -- or, at least, something that seems kind of human.

I will offer you another Bock quote: "Google famously used to ask everyone for a transcript and GPAs and test scores, but we don't anymore, unless you're just a few years out of school. We found that they don't predict anything."

And the joyously human data just keeps on coming: Bock said the percentage of Googlies who've never been to college is increasing. Sometimes, as much as 14 percent of team members are entirely unsullied by phis, betas, kappas, and Saturday football rah-rahs.

Just a reminder.