Where is Nantucket?

I can't find the title to explain what I want to say today, hopefully, by the end I will find it.
Most of my ramblings have been about a not-so-distant past but this one is about today.

Progress. The use of technology to make life easier. Seems simple and there's hardly any need to expound on the idea. We do have microwave ovens, computers that are handheld, and soon those flying cars we all dreamed of AND self-driving!
The future appears to be an amazing adventure that is on the cusp of exploding each day with something we barely could imagine only a few scant years ago.
Today, I understand the truth.

30 years ago I was new manager in a corporate world. Low man on the totem pole, as it was. I was desperate to find the right staff for my kitchen crew because I always seemed to be 2 or 3 cooks short of having an efficient team. I asked my regional manager for a series of questions that I could use during the interview process, 15-20 good, revealing questions to ask every candidate, slowly seeing what it was that I was looking for in that potential employee based on how they answered, body language, or any other outward sign that they displayed. In time, I would see a pattern of success or failure based on a face to face conversation. A bonding.
I didn't get those questions from my regional that year and it would be many years before someone other than me came up with standard to follow. This is about today, however.

Today, when you apply with a company you simply go on line. No need to even leave the comfort of your own home to line up a possible interview with a small catch...you have to complete an assessment. What I wanted was 15-20 questions, what we have is 100 or more that delve into the psychology of what the company is hoping to find in a generation of work ethic challenged youths.

The captain of the ill-fated whaling ship "Essex" that inspired the Melville book "Moby Dick" only had one question. Can you get to Nantucket before we sail? Didn't work out for him. He didn't choose his crew and his men chose a job and he happened to be the boss.

The assessments by the big boys like Snag-a-Job, cull the field by accident. They really only ask the same question, Can you get to Nantucket? It will be difficult for people to accept this idea so I will explain it as I did to my Regional Manager today.
Two former employees scored "serious concern" on the psych test for attitude, not that I ever experienced a problem with either one. I want both of them back.
I am the leader of a small restaurant, people choose to work for me or not. I hired my crew based on that face time that we had, bonded with them through orientation, oversaw their training. If recruiting companies wish to profit off of me, the questions should be geared to the type of leader I am, not the type of cookie cutter employee the company thinks they are looking for based on a demographic the recruiter thinks we want.

As managers, we want to build a team. We need the face time with everyone so we can make the judgement call of who wants to work with us. We need the ones who will stand with us when the shift goes wrong not jump ship during the first crash and burn. Ones that want to be apart of something.

Progress is not an answer in hiring in the service trade but 15 questions are as long as one is not Where is Nantucket?