Originally published at: Why Thomas Edison made job applicants eat soup in front of him | Boing Boing
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I misread that headline as “made job applicants eat soap” and figured the answer was “because he was a sadistic bastard who loved lording his authority over underlings.”
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That would actually make more sense.
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I recently served my father scrambled eggs for breakfast and without hesitation he added salt before I could tell him feta was already added.
My father makes lots of assumptions, judgments, conspiracies, etc. Fact.
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Well his soup test wasn’t a very good one. I instinctively salt most things that I know typically need it. Out of habit. But I am certainly a question asker and creative. I don’t need to ask the same question over and over when I know from experience that I prefer to add salt to X food.
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Meh. You will invariably sort out the one guy who needs insane amount of salt – I had a colleague wo would salt salads, I kid you not – otoh perhaps losing one of 100 isn’t a bad deal.
See above. You assume that a test that sorts you out must be a wrong test. But it may be an acceptable loss.
Though yes, I have my doubts about this one.
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Gee, I thought the test would be whether they slurped or not.
I never add salt or pepper to soup, so it never occurred to me.
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Well, in Germany you’d want to sort out the people who put in Maggi Würze.
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I have a friend with hyponatremia - she doesn’t retain enough sodium in her blood so she has to constantly snack on salty foods.
I never salt my foods - even if it might need it. I cook with salt sure, but I never add extra after it’s been served.
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More deliciously, Terry Pratchett coined a term for these people: autocondimenters.
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I salt salads, but I don’t use dressings, so… (I assume you’re talking about pre-prepared salads with dressing on?). Would be pretty unusual not to season a salad in some way I’d have thought, certainly one containing tomatoes.
As for salting things that typically need it…that’s literally the point isn’t it? You’re assuming it needs it without having actually tried it. Would be valid of course if you always went to the same restaurant / bought the same soup, but you’ve never tried a soup at an Edison interview. Could be 50% brine!
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Edison did not invent much, the people working for him did. The 1000 patents where form work those folks did he just made sure his name was on them.
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Weird, I assume soup prepared by anyone besides myself will be overly salty. 
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And I do it reverse, usually. Safe for some garlic-rubs for the chicken, I don’t use salt in my cooking, I salt afterwards if needed.
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i love pepper in (certain) soups. so good
soup is an odd one though because it’s steaming its aromatics into the air. ( unless it’s a cold soup i suppose )
if you don’t have a guess about what it tastes like, especially considering a big component of taste is smell, before you eat it… well, it’s time to consider a covid test.
and, ummm, since covid is a new virus, it didn’t exist in edison’s time, he couldn’t have known about it, so his clever test is “clever” qed
( also. big question: who made those soups for him? )
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I mean actually salads made from raw vegetables, mushrooms, etc. I usually eat those without any dressing and he did , too, but he put salt on them.
I feel like a different test that actually tests how someone approaches a problem, vs dietary quirks, would make a better test.
Though from what I have read, he was an asshole to work for, so maybe it was for the best.
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They tell the same story about Charlie Walgreen.
Can’t speak for where you are, but in the UK at least it’s the norm to season a salad (lettuce, tomato, onion etc).
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