Hire Jori Koolstra now - go into the interview intending to sell, then compress the loop to days
Situation
Peter had a 10:00 interview with Jori Koolstra for the Linux Kernel Development Engineer role on Aug 30 (a Sunday). Beforehand he asked Nathan Blackham directly whether the slot was an interview or a sell, and said his own plan was already sell: I hope it is sell because that is my plan. I also really hope I like this guy because I LOVE his resume. Immediately after the call he told Nathan Hire him now. That is my take, and in the group DM with Nathan and Brianne Clasen he wrote We should hire Jori. Like... today. In #distinguished-leaders, replying to Bjorn Hovland asking whether anything ever happened with Tim Pepper and saying We need to be better at evangelizing Rocky and We just do not have an active community leader over there, Peter volunteered the same candidate: I also interviewed a kernel engineer candidate that I LOVED today (background in math) who wants to spend a lot of time evangelizing Rocky upstream and building a community. Bjorn replied Get him. Nathan confirmed the next morning that it was a sell, said he would get the roundtable scheduled for today or tomorrow, and added that he might be trying to get him out earlier.
Reasoning
Peter decided the posture of the meeting before the meeting - he went in to sell rather than to evaluate, which is a decision about how to spend the slot rather than a reaction to how the candidate performed. Two things make speed the operative variable rather than fit. First, Bjorn had named the Rocky community-evangelism gap in the same 48 hours, and this candidate volunteers for exactly that alongside the kernel work, so one hire closes a technical req and a strategic gap that had no owner. Second, a slow loop had a concrete and recent cost. Compressing to a roundtable within a day or two is Peter spending his own credibility to remove elapsed time from the process, which is the one variable he controls when he cannot move the number.
Additional Context
Interviewed Sunday Aug 30 at 10:00 Pacific via the Greenhouse scheduling link. Sits against a run of recent kernel-candidate decisions that went the other way - two rejections on Aug 21 and a conditional yes on Aug 28 that was only granted because it triggered an exit. This is the first unqualified move-fast yes in that sequence.
Observed Evidence
Pre-interview to Nathan: For the interview that I have today.... Am I interviewing or am I selling? and I hope it is sell... because that is my plan. I also really hope I like this guy because I LOVE his resume. Post-interview to Nathan: Hire him now. That is my take. Group DM: We should hire Jori. Like... today. #distinguished-leaders: I also interviewed a kernel engineer candidate that I LOVED today. Bjorn: Get him. Nathan next morning: Sorry I missed the first message but it was a sell. I will get the round table scheduled for today or tomorrow, and But I might be trying to get him out earlier.
Confidence Breakdown
Reasoning Depth Analysis
People Involved
Source
reflection
AI Confidence
94%
Related Context
slack
I also interviewed a kernel engineer candidate that I LOVED today (background in math) who wants to spend a lot of time evangelizing Rocky upstream and building a community.
calendar
2026-08-30 10:00-10:30 Pacific
Outcome
No outcome recorded yet.
Decision ID: c3c9ab93-e297-4ee9-9ad1-a2ad9f3ddf39