How Elon Musk spots a liar

The problem is that anyone can say they’re the best at what they do, but it can be hard — and at times impossible — to know whether they’re telling the truth.

Luckily, Musk revealed his solution at the World Government Summit in 2017. He asks each candidate he interviews the same question: “Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.”

Because “the people who really solved the problem know exactly how they solved it,” he said. “They know and can describe the little details.”

Musk’s method hinges（合页）on the idea that someone making a false claim will lack the ability to back it up convincingly, so he wants to hear them talk about how they worked through a thorny （棘手的）issue, step by step.