I think that's the advice I take from this article and other similar ones.

In most jobs there's going to be some learning that needs to happen on the job. You want the people who will go out and make this happen. It's hard to tell that from credentials because you can't differentiate those who just did what someone else told them from someone who was able to find the underlying challenges and address them themselves.

I think you're right that hunger is the biggest indicator. People that are willing to go into the unknown. People who can identify problems. People who have drive.

I also think it means one of the most important roles of an effective manager is to help maintain the team's drive. If they're just doing it for the paycheck then you'll get exactly that. The work will probably be fine but you won't hire the best. If your whole team is burnt out then it's a systematic failure. It's easy to get caught in the push but a hungry manager needs to make their team hungry, rather than just push them to the finish line. People with their heads in the weeds will find things you never could when you have to look at the entire field.