The Three I's Test
Choose collaborators by high integrity, high intelligence, and high initiative.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
Borrowed from Warren Buffett, the Three I's Test is a simple hiring and partnering scorecard: integrity, intelligence, and initiative, each high. Integrity means they do what they say, removing the draining doubt of wondering whether they are honest. Intelligence means demonstrated processing ability and capability, not a resume or school pedigree. Initiative, the one McKeown most longs for, means they do the thinking themselves, and since effort is fundamentally mental exertion, a high-initiative collaborator makes the work effortless by carrying the cognition for you. The test's power is its clarity: instead of a fuzzy sense of fit, you check three named attributes and only proceed when all three are high, which is where working relationships become a genuine pleasure.
Origin
McKeown adapted the scorecard from Warren Buffett's stated criteria and wished aloud he had had the test twenty years earlier for evaluating collaborators.
Core principles
- 01Who you work with determines how effortful the work feels.
- 02Integrity removes the exhausting cost of doubting people.
- 03Intelligence is demonstrated capability, not credentials.
- 04Initiative means someone does the thinking for you.
- 05Effort is mental exertion; the right people carry it for you.
How to run it
- 1
Test for integrity
Judge whether the person reliably does what they say rather than saying one thing and doing another.
Watch out Low integrity is the most exhausting deficit; it forces you to double-check everything.
- 2
Test for intelligence
Assess demonstrated capability to figure things out and get things done, not credentials or where they studied.
Pro tip Ask what they have actually built or solved, not what their resume claims.
- 3
Test for initiative
Look for someone who acts and thinks without needing to be prompted.
Pro tip Prioritize this trait for anything you want to fully hand off, since it does your thinking for you.
- 4
Require all three to be high
Only move forward when integrity, intelligence, and initiative are all strong, not just one or two.
Pro tip When you find all three, treat the relationship as rare and worth protecting.
In the wild
Chris described Joe, a social media editor who had listened to the show for years and understood the voice. Joe listens to episodes recreationally, sends timestamped voice notes about clips he will make, and repurposes the newsletter into tweet storms without direction. He scores high on all three I's, so the work flows to Chris with almost no oversight.
→ A high-initiative hire produced near-hands-off content, freeing the founder's attention entirely.
Common mistakes
Hiring on credentials over capability
Optimizing for school pedigree or resume rather than demonstrated ability to get things done mistakes intelligence for its signal.
Tolerating one high I
A brilliant but low-integrity or low-initiative collaborator still forces you to monitor and think for them, defeating the purpose.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and managers deciding whom to hire, contract, or partner with.
Not ideal for
One-off transactional interactions where deep working trust is irrelevant.
From the transcript
“who you're looking to work with is people that have high integrity high intelligence and high initiative”
“the effort really what effort is is mental exertion... if you've had some with high initiative they're doing the thinking for you”
From the episode
How To Make Life Effortless - Greg McKeown - #314
Greg McKeown