erykthebat: Since I have heard this same anecdote about Henry Ford to I pretty much have come to the conclusion this is an entirely made up event that is the kind of thing a dumb person would think a smart person would do.
IronicMetamodernism: I like the idea of just throwing half the applications in the rubbish bin because who wants to hire an unlucky person.
GlialUreterostenosis: This is the predecessor to those “creative” interview questions Microsoft and Google used to ask, before [they realized they don’t predict job performance and ended the practice](https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/why-brainteasers-dont-belong-in-job-interviews).
amnesiac2323: Nothing like a little soup during a job interview, totally not weird
jleonardbc: I really like pepper, and I’m not very likely to lower my enjoyment of the soup by overpeppering. But I’m almost guaranteed not to enjoy the first sip of soup before I pepper it. In game theory terms, I maximize my outcomes by always pre-peppering.
Did he also dock people for putting their coats back on when they left before getting outside? What if it’s not cold out anymore?
Also, how do you manage to look dignified during an interview while trying to eat a bowl of soup??
mordahl: Autocondimentor:
>”Someone who will put certainly salt and probably pepper on any meal you put in front of them whatever it is and regardless of how much it’s got on it already and regardless of how it tastes. Behavioural psychiatrists working for fast-food outlets around the universe have saved billions of whatever the local currency is by noting the autocondimenting phenomenon and advising their employers to leave seasoning out in the first place. This is really true.” – Terry Pratchett. (Reaper Man)
Sympathy_for_the_FO: He was the Original Soup Nazi.
Edzell_Blue: Seems he lacked an analitical enough mind to work out that this practice arbitrarily weeded out perfectly competent candidates.
TweedleDumps: …..a test which assumed the interviewee used salt or pepper.
SoriAryl: I heard this from a coworker about eggs. That he would take them out to a diner for breakfast and see how they eat their eggs.
I would have failed because I ALWAYS add salt and pepper to diner eggs, because they rarely have spices. I don’t need to taste them to see that there’s no pepper flakes in the eggs
pharmaco4: This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Adding salt, pepper, or any sauces to something you didn’t make before you taste it is rude and doesn’t make sense. I’ve had people add salt then complain that it was too salty – well no shit, I seasoned it before and during cooking to taste so you didn’t have to add any. Taste it first then decide what it needs.
BobsReddit_: I have to say, if I sat at an hour long meal with a potential employer, if all he focused on during the conversation was not my points but whether I salt my food, knowing nothing else, I would not want to work there
nerbovig: There’s never too much pepper.
yobowl: Yeah because I apply the principles of analyzing my food before eating… stupidest analytical test imaginable… sure he lost out on some good talent because he thought he was clever
T1G_ThatOneGuy: What about those of us that can smell how bad his soup is?
HabadaDoobadaDoobadi: That’s a good way to know that your boss is an asshole, if he uses bullshit wisdom tests like this to make decisions.
NewNormandy7: Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant.
marcuschookt: I call bullshit. No successful person worth their salt would base such a decision of some tiny shit like this.
“Oh you graduated suma cum laude from an Ivy League school, have hundreds of hours of extra-curricular experience, and also have interned at various renowned firms? But you *don’t drink soup properly*, fuck off.”
explosionhurtedme: Obligatory EDISON WAS A THIEF comment
ph33randloathing: Presumably they got extra credit for taking the soup, saying they cooked it, and selling it to someone else.
ForgedBanana: Here comes the Tesla circlejerk.
TheNakedMars: A rather presumptuous means to test for presumptousness.
To Hell with the Edisonian world.
Fuck_Edison: Fuck Edison and fuck his soup
mattdmort: I also heard that JC Penny would do the same thing at large middle management luncheons to decide who to promote. So weird.
OwenCohen: Probably stole that idea from Tesla
BobNewhartIsGod: I once heard the exact opposite about Donald Trump. Supposedly, he wanted people who were assured of their own tastes or something. I wanna say it was in his second book, the one that came out after “Art of the Deal,” where the whole middle section was a biography of Ivana.
Barkalow: I bet if you salted/peppered and then stole his wallet while he was distracted you’d get the job.
oddtoddious: Gotta make sure their actual inventions are going to be worth taking credit for someday.
chief_dirtypants: I’ve always heard this story associated with admiral Rickover.
pby1000: Salt is not salty enough for me. I put salt on salt.
NeedMoneyForVagina: But I have a salt deficiency
KanadainKanada: So Thomas Edison did assume that the potential employee hadn’t observed and analyzed the average meal & spicing and deducted that in relation to their own taste preference knew in advance the need for salt and spice. Yeah…
RUBI44: I just enjoy a healthy amount of pepper and crackers in any soup.
IndecentCracker: I wouldn’t eat the soup….. wtf?
What a weirdo.
rontor: I can smell when something needs salt though.
ilovekickrolls: Who salt soup before tasting it? Barbaric.
toothsaber: Who does that???
Raichu7: Who salts or peppers food before tasting it? You don’t know if the cook has already horrifically over salted/peppered or not.
malarkyx420: https://www.snopes.com/business/genius/salted.asp
Lovetan9: well I’m sorry but if you don’t understand how nice FRESHLY ground pepper tastes in certain soups, I have no desire to work for you anyway.
e1em3nt: “I made a decision to eat the soup.
I didn’t sit around thinking all day, “Hey, do I do this? Do I not do this?”
DakotaBashir: Plot twist, you can know how peppery or salty a dish is by its smell.
Kjell_Aronsen: European here: I’ve heard that in the US it’s considered impolite to salt the soup after you’ve tasted it, because that casts aspersions on the chef. So you should always salt beforehand.
Peachskull97: TIL that I would have received the job..
FluffyPortalWanker: Isn’t this test ironic because you yourself are making the assumption that the person doesn’t have a habit of putting salt or pepper in their soup?
SemanticRomantic: Anyone who admires Edison is a fool.
GestaltJungle: …maybe they just liked their soup salty. If anything, *he* was the one not being analytical by just assuming their motivations.
Shinekaze: The story about soup is probably apocryphal, but that doesn’t mean that Edison didn’t demand a lot of nonsensical BS during interviews. He used to make prospective employees take a huge 146 question exam over esoteric and arbitrary knowledge that basically everyone failed. You can see the types of questions he asked [here.](https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/take-the-intelligence-test-that-thomas-edison-gave-to-j-1689489019)
Lardzor: It’s like offering someone coffee, and then seeing if they add cream and sugar before tasting it.
FatQuack: I think it would be very stupid if you have been adding salt to something for decades ( like French Fries ) yet every time you get them you taste them in the vague hope that maybe this ONE TIME they won’t need salt.
kindessissupreme: Lol I put black pepper and habanero sauce in everything . I luv it
BmfBrandon: Ironic considering he is making an assumption about them from the way they eat their soup. Thomas Edison was also a liar, biggot, and thief; so I wouldn’t trust anything he did really.
SweetDick_Willy: Who the fuck adds salt and pepper to soup?
GabeRothel: He also murdered elephants to prove to Tesla and the world that AC current was dangerous. Evil Edison.
DoctorWolfie: Edison wasn’t a real scientist himself so the irony is great
sasquatch989: Rather ironic for a guy that so harshly criticized alternating current
The_Immortalist: Edison was a dick then and is a dick in death now.
mb149: Edison was a dick- quite frankly.
ManCalledTrue: I’ve heard the same story, but it was about Henry Ford.
Atlanticall: This story is so stupid and is total bullshit, but it’s negative so “fuck Edison”, right?
Bunch of dummies will believe any shit you’re fed, there’s even a Snopes article for those too lazy to actually research the claim on your own (the article sourced to a bathroom book published 25 years ago FFS).
farmer_dabz: This is straight up the dumbest thing Thomas Edison did. What if I like my soup a little bit on the spicy side so I add pepper? What if I’ve been adding pepper all my life, and that’s just my habit? That somehow makes me a worse candidate than someone who didn’t put black pepper in their soup…?
pacovato: That’s a truly dumb metric but in a lot of ways Edison was a dumb man so this isn’t surprising in the least if true.
dpcaxx: I put hot sauce on everything. I know it isn’t in there already, and I want it in there. I don’t have to taste my biscuits and gravy to know there isn’t fucking hot sauce in it.
Maybe it was his mom’s soup, and it pissed her off if you fucked with it, then she would bitch him out if he hired you.
TIL: Edison’s mom was a narcissist.
wojosmith: Do you know why? Because “assumption make an ASS out of U and ME.
FrowgateClitsmith: A) what kind of bullshit judgement theory is that?
B) fuck Edison, half the reason our power needs cause war and corruption nowadays is his fault.
C) seriously fuck that guy.
juiceunit: Edison was a jealous inventor, especially because he tried to push dc energy as better or more efficient.. tesla on the other hand provided a.c. energy and tried to make it free. Gave away all his patents free.
durkdurkistanian: I heard he killed elephants to gain a competitive advantage.
KookyKracks: TIL interviews come with food