Comment by mikelevins | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikelevins | Hacker News Reader

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I can see why it sounds that way. Let me supply some context.

I cannot answer any question in conversation with a stranger unless the answer is something I happen to know off the top of my head, or the question is about what I can see or feel or remember in the moment. It's related to a general sort of cognitive disability I have that shows up in several other ways.

For example, if I'm driving and you engage me in conversation, we will get lost. Every time.

If I'm playing a multiplayer game with voice chat, and people are talking to me, I will lose.

There are just certain cognitive activities that I cannot combine successfully. The presence of a stranger in conversation forcibly occupies all of my attention. I am unable to think about anything other than interpreting the stranger's utterances and preparing my own. If I try to, for example, answer questions about FizzBuzz that require me to actually think about how things work, my mind goes completely blank.

"I'm trying to think, but nothing happens."

I presume that in each case where I received an offer, it was because the team had information from other channels that made me attractive. I know it for a fact in a couple of cases.

So in recent years I've mostly relied on those other channels, and just skipped the so-called technical interview. All it's going to tell you about me is that I can't do what you want me to in a technical interview.

Interesting. I have this exact same problem. I gave up applying for regular jobs eventually as it was so demoralizing. Only work contracts through contacts now. It pays the bills, so I can’t really complain I suppose

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one.

You're definitely not. I often hear people describe it as multitasking. My wife excels at multitasking but I perform better having my complete concentration on a specific task (the one exception being listening to music).

I can't even have the TV on for "background noise" like some people like to because you can guarantee it will completely take my focus away from whatever else I'm trying to concentrate on.

Yeah, no tv and no music for me. Too distracting. I’m a musician, too, which just makes it worse.

This is the best argument I’ve heard against whiteboard / leetcode interviews. A lot of people have trouble talking and coding at the same time, it doesn’t make them less smart.

I'm pretty sure choking is behind most of the "LOL I caught a faker" stories from interviewers. I think it's far more common than people who've somehow been employed multiple places and can "talk the talk" but can't actually handle a for-loop. Most of them are just choking, under a very particular kind of pressure that's pretty much only ever encountered in interviews[0] and certain academic situations.

Like, there's the trope of the kid being called to the blackboard and not being able to solve some trivial problem even though they're not an idiot—and it's based in reality. IDK why we assume that reaction must be rare among adults.

[0] In certain kinds of tech interviews, to be specific. Somehow most of the rest of the white-collar and professional world gets by just fine without these kinds of hazing rituals.

In most interviews, if you say something like "Im just going to code in silence and we can talk about this later" is going to be well accepted.

How about, "I’m just going to take this question home to my office and work on it while out of all contact on no specific schedule so that I am not involuntarily preoccupied by my perception of a stranger watching me?"

No? I thought not. That’s why I simply avoid those kinds of hiring processes.

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