Elon Musk recently made headlines by removing résumés and cover letters from part of his hiring process — asking candidates instead to submit three bullet points describing the hardest problems they’ve solved.
At first glance, it sounds like progress.
Less polish. More substance.
Less storytelling. More proof.
But it also raises a more uncomfortable question: Are we actually improving how we assess talent — or just replacing one shortcut with another?
Résumés have always been imperfect. They favor narrative over truth, confidence over competence, and increasingly, they can be generated or enhanced by AI in seconds.
So yes — the system needed to evolve. But reducing a candidate to three bullet points creates a different kind of distortion. It favors speed over depth. Clarity over complexity. What is easy to explain over what is difficult to measure.
The best leaders are not always the ones who can summarize their impact in three lines. And the most valuable contributions are not always the most visible ones. So the real question is not whether résumés should disappear. It’s this:
Are we getting better at recognizing real capability — or just becoming more efficient at filtering it?
Because hiring is not just about identifying who has solved problems. It’s about understanding how they think, how they lead, and what they build over time. And none of that fits neatly into three bullet points.
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