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Was Socrates' busiest student the one with a lot on his Plato?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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No, that was his HUNGRIEST student! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Your suck rate just went up. 
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You are occamsionally right, however, this time I am afreud you are wrong.
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Always a chuckle. Brilliant - love to know where you are stealing these from... 
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I tried to come up with something clever, but I Kant.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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I Xeno evidence to the contrary!
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I think this is very important. I'm fine with them not knowing everything. I don't know everything. However, you have to know how to troubleshoot (Google/StackOverflow/CodeProject - etc.) and find your own answers. That is key for a developer/engineer these days, IMHO.
I know Google is very big on this in their interview process (solving problems and troubleshooting).
Edit: I know this is a Leslie topic, but hell, enough is enough!
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So what are you looking for, upvotes? Disagreement?
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harold aptroot wrote: So what are you looking for
Just making a vented comment.
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It's a valid comment. And while Google's 'How many ping pong balls fit in a 747?' type question might have worked at one point, people are now training themselves for these.
The true indicator is how well people construct a mental model of the software system they are working with, and how well they can manipulate that model. If we see an unwanted symptom, what fault(s)/failure(s) in the software can enable that to happen?
I always ask people to explain a system they are familiar with, not because I want to know it, but because I want them to explain how well they do. I occasionally get the 'can't talk about the system at my last job' response, so I ask them to talk about something else - Uni project, hobby project, etc.
People who have great mental models are able to diagnose defects simply by the symptom. I've seen this myself - one guy saying 'It can't possibly happen', another saying 'It has to be an off-by-one error in this part' - and being right.
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NeverJustHere wrote: I occasionally get the 'can't talk about the system at my last job' response
That doesn't fly with me. They should be able to describe the system and how they solved problems in general terms without discussing specifics or infringing on their former employer's IP concerns. In a sense, this shows how capable they are of abstracting the problem from its domain.
Software Zen: delete this;
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That is putting unfair pressure on people: I had to sign a NDA at a previous gig and was handed a lawyer's letter when I left reminding me to keep my mouth shut. Ok, it was probably a bit OTT but I would just tell you I can't talk about that, but I can talk about the one before that. What would be the problem with that?
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Any previous project would do, but there are damned few jobs that you can't at least say something about it. Even back when I was a contractor for the DoD I could describe projects in general terms and the problems I solved on my resume and in interviews without violating the terms of my security clearance.
It's a judgement call on your part. If your prior employer specializes in XYZ business intelligence modelling, and you're interviewing with a company that does WXY business intelligence modelling, then you need to be more circumspect than the case where they want you to write microcontroller code for widgets.
Again, it's a question of how well you can abstract the problem from its domain, reason about the problem, and determine an appropriate solution. Being able to retrospectively analyze a project shows your ability to learn from past efforts and apply those lessons to future tasks.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I understand (and agree with much of) what you are saying, but if I say to you I can't talk about that project, I don't think you should press someone or mark against them for doing so. Let them talk about something that doesn't make them feel uncomfortable. If you pressed me to do it, I would end the interview.
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Agreed. My concern is that I've interviewed a couple of people who were vague about everything they had worked on previously. It wasn't that they didn't want to talk about prior work, it was that didn't know how.
Solitary programmers may be able to work without communicating what they're doing, but in my environment you must be able to communicate.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary Wheeler wrote: My concern is that I've interviewed a couple of people who were vague about everything they had worked on previously. It wasn't that they didn't want to talk about prior work, it was that didn't know how.
Fair point. That is hard. I prefer to talk about personal projects when asked. It also shows that I have an interest outside of work and am trying to keep my skills current. Well, I mean, of course I don't count the Lego project... 
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Gary Wheeler wrote: It's a judgement call on your part. ....
Again, it's a question of how well you can abstract the problem from its domain, reason about the problem, and determine an appropriate solution. Being able to retrospectively analyze a project shows your ability to learn from past efforts and apply those lessons to future tasks.
Yes, but unless the programming job requires a legal background it shouldn't be a requirement that the interviewee must be able to determine what it is legal for them to discuss and what isn't.
Now if you want to pay for them to bring their own lawyer for consultation then that then becomes reasonable. Is that is what you are going to do?
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I was once worried enough about an NDA to consult an attourney. Turns out NDAs are not very enforceable on software developers. They are a kind of legal document designed as a pre-emptive strike to scare people who don't know much about NDAs. They don't cover general questions, and they don't cover coding minutiae.
If you were a senior vice president, you should probably not go blabbing your former employers strategic marketing plans. If you were a salesman, you can get into trouble if you steal the customer list. But if you worked for Amazon, the fact that you were working on an e-commerce app that used the cloud, or a portable device running android-ish is hardly a secret. Little fish don't know big secrets. Practically everybody is working on an e-commerce app that uses the cloud. As long as you aren't very specific about the target market, you can talk coding issues all day and not violate your NDA.
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NeverJustHere wrote: Google's 'How many ping pong balls fit in a 747?'
If any interviewer were to ask me a question like that I would walk. The purpose of the question is to show how clever the interviewer is (for asking it) and how clever you are not (for not having the One True Answer on the tip of your tongue).
If I were feeling kindly that day (like, they served really good coffee) I might respond: "Take a 747. Hire a group of interns to fill it with ping pong balls, having them count each ball as they put it in the plane. Add up their totals".
Arrogant morons.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I had read that they are more interested in your thought process versus if you come up with the correct answer or not.
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Yes, but there's still the One True Thought Process they are searching for.
Software Zen: delete this;
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1) Assuming TSA decided not to allow ping pong balls on any flight(s), answer is zero.
2) Assuming TSA decided to allow boxed ping pong balls only on flight(s) with one per head at the maximum while we can fit only 9 per box , answer is 9.
..and so on. I see many True Through Processes  at this point.
Standing same on your side - I wouldn't prefer answering such questions, though, if the expectation is a single number with no assumptions and/or time and/or access to enough-resources(that can count for me etc..) allowed. He he. But again what a troll-worthy question. 
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Gary Wheeler wrote: If any interviewer were to ask me a question like that I would walk. The purpose of the question is to show how clever the interviewer is (for asking it) and how clever you are not (for not having the One True Answer on the tip of your tongue).
But sometimes it can be fun to see that they don't know the answer.
I once had an interviewer ask me a question. I answered it. Then commented on how unusual it was that I had answered exactly the same question on a bulletin board just a week before.
I really did think it was just an interesting coincidence but his fumbled conversation after that finally made me realize that he had gotten the question from my post.
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