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Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

Im not demanding anything. What I am saying is that resorting to attacking that (which has very little relevance to the discussion at hand) isn't going to win you the round. ;)

To defend my statement: I explained how I, as an engineer, break a problem down. Pretty much every other engineer I know uses much the same approach (and when I hire I look for the same skill because it fits into our team) - but it's, of course, not the only way. Each to his own.

Seriously: if your going to call out my english at least read and understand what is written ;)

Nit picking over language isn't making a point for you: it'simply suggesting you dont have a decent counter argument. Someone else posted a convincing one - you should give it a read :)

Your a "newish" commentor so I guess you havent learned the culture here :) I made the same mistake once. It's cool no harm done.

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Again with the traps!

First, you're chasing an irrelevant point. My grammatical nitpicking has nothing to do with the topic at hand. I'm writing down "easily distracted by internet arguments."

Second, you're assuming importance. By bringing my "newish"-ness into play you're effectively asserting that hanging out in Hacker News makes you better at arguing your points, which obviously isn't true regardless of how high your karma is. I'm writing down "doesn't actually look up accounts' creation dates before tossing around seniority."

Third, you're assuming ignorance. I have no interest in talking about interviewing policies with you. I am trolling. You have been trolled. Do not feed the troll. I'm writing down "has been trolled."

Fourth, you're chasing the wrong issue. Actually, this is the same as the first trap. I'm not sure why you decided to list it as a separate bullet point. But hey! Traps! Bullet points! I'm writing down "overly fond of bullet points."

Fifth and finally, you're assuming irrelevance. Not in the "making an assumption about" sense of the word, but in the "acquiring the attributes of" sense. I'm writing down "GIGO."

Black eyes! Feathers in caps! Traps!

Nah your actually really poor at this... but i will humour it :)

Wait no i cant be bothered: you've given up the charade so will I.

I know your trolling, it's amusing to feed trolls because (especially round here) it outs them from what they are for very little burn.

More traps! More black eyes! Nary a feather in your cap! Had you any friends I would urge them to see to you.

The ideal candidate for this job knows when -- as Kenny Rogers put it -- to "hold 'em" and when to "fold 'em." By not simply walking away from a fruitless discussion with a self-admitted troll, you've shown yourself to place pride above the minimax of effort in the pursuit of solution. This single-minded devotion to a stupid, stupid task is not a quality we look for in our engineers.

Instead of readjusting strategies and avoiding the sunken cost fallacy, you chose the classic 6th grade technique of pretending you knew all along and the decidedly modern approach of post-facto appointing yourself as head of Hacker News' Troll-Baiting Brigade (official motto: "We Get Made Fun Of So You Don't Have To," official song: "Nearer To Thee, PG"). When faced with a losing bet, you doubled up.

You can keep the dry erase marker you're holding, but I'm going to have to ask security to see you out.

Hard to find quality candidates these days...

He as pointing out a potential inconsistency in your posts very subtly and politely, compared to how I would have done it.

I am a software engineer and I do not work the way you are describing. I take the actual problem to be solved very seriously and try and solve that in the most minimal way possible while leveraging and reusing existing code. I suppose I am not hired because I work differently. I've fallen into your trap of not designing complex systems in a stressful situation the way you expect me to.

So in revenge all my interviews now require a properly spelled and gramatically correct 5k word essay. It's just as arbitrary as what you've proposed. It is my "trap", which is your code word for "unreasonable and inscrutable expectation."

your assuming I wouldnt spell check a 5K essay and therefore would dail such a test... ;)

EDIT: as I mentioned elsewhere people do do things in other ways (though you seem to be suggesting my approach might not take a problem seriously??) and there ain't anything wrong with that. At no point did I say there was :)

"your [sic] assuming I wouldnt spell check a 5K essay and therefore would dail such a test... ;)"

Whiteboards have spellcheck?

Specify the parameters of your requirements ;)

aka touche.

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