I decided to share tonight a little story.
Just a hypothetical of one of probably 1000 different ways the best and brightest are found.
I make no claims that this actually happened…
Just some speculative food for thought.

Imagine you got a greater than 1500 score on the SAT your senior year of high school.
Edit: pre-2006 when 1500 was HIGH & rare.

A week after high school ends, two suits show up at your door congratulating you on your SAT score. They inquire about your plans after high school etc. and invite you to take an entrance exam for some "really exciting job opportunity."

Maybe they never said "government" or "department of the navy" or whatever but they sure gave off a military vibe.
You show up 2 weeks later at your local community college on a Saturday at 10am. You take a seat among a couple dozen other recent high school grads, some from neighboring counties that also decided to show up…
Presumably they also scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT.

The man in the suit at the front of the room gets right down to the point. "You're all here to take an aptitude test. you have exactly 60 minutes to complete the test. Rarely does anyone finish before the allotted time, so if you don't, don't worry. Follow the directions closely. When you're done raise your hand and someone will come to you. You may begin now."

The instructions at the top of the page are as follows:
During this exam different areas of your reading and comprehension will be assessed. Only the top scoring candidates will be chosen. No rescheduling will be permitted. Today's exam will focus on four key areas. Time management. Aptitude and ability to focus. Knowledge of current events. Extracurricular competence. Time management is of particular importance. Exams are graded based on the questions attempted. Skip any questions you are not familiar with. Tell one of the exam administrators if you finish before the 60 minute time limit."

As everyone begins scribbling away as fast as they can bubbling in answers, you happen to notice something... coincidental?

...the first letter of every sentence coincidently spells out "DONT TAKE TEST."

You could care less about working for the navy/government or whoever tf these guys are so within 30 seconds of the test starting, you raise your hand. Immediately a polite yet intimidating man in a suit approaches from behind you, leans down and whispers, "have you finished?"

You nod in the affirmative.

You and your exam are taken to a different room.
The man sits across the table from you and takes a look at your fill-in-the-bubble answer sheet and then immediately looks up at you with a disappointed, bewildered-yet-intimidating look on his face and says "I thought you said you completed the test?"

You, intimidated and a bit embarrassed think to yourself 'Ahh fuck! Was it really just a coincidence!?'

You then proceed to explain to him what you noticed in the instructions and why you did not fill out a single answer.

His face immediately changes from a skeptical scowl to a proud grin and he says, "congratulations, you're the only one that passed."

Neat story eh?