It probably depends on how incestuous your chosen industry is.
I'm going to guess that Sam went to a "top 10 school" and has only worked in Silicon valley. In this case I'm guessing that this advice seems self evident to him as you tend to run into the same people over and over again.
The financial industry behaves very similarly where all other things being equal, its considered almost a negative if you can't find someone who actually knows a potential hire. This makes it easy to move around but tougher to break in.
I'm not sure if this is good advice or bad advice but it is something that does happen so its best to follow the old advice and make friends/network. It doesn't have to be slimy, it can be as simple as emailing someone on hacker news who made a comment you learned something from to thank them for making it.
I'm going to guess that Sam went to a "top 10 school" and has only worked in Silicon valley. In this case I'm guessing that this advice seems self evident to him as you tend to run into the same people over and over again.
The financial industry behaves very similarly where all other things being equal, its considered almost a negative if you can't find someone who actually knows a potential hire. This makes it easy to move around but tougher to break in.
I'm not sure if this is good advice or bad advice but it is something that does happen so its best to follow the old advice and make friends/network. It doesn't have to be slimy, it can be as simple as emailing someone on hacker news who made a comment you learned something from to thank them for making it.