[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> When I go into ‘interviewing mode’ I stop working on side projects, I stop visiting bs sites like reddit, news sites, and even HN. If it isn’t going to help you get that job just cut it from your life.

While I agree that interviewing is a bit of a crap shoot, the above paragraph from the OP is actually a pretty good argument for not doing anything to prepare for it.

If going into interviewing mode means you stop working on your own stuff, or having free time, or generally doing stuff that a) you enjoy and b) make you better at your work (rather than interviews) then you're paying a cost alright, and it's at least comparable to the cost of take-home coding exercises.

If you're just applying anywhere you can it probably means you don't care where you go anyway. If you apply in sufficiently many places eventually you'll find the one place where they like you, you like them, you got what they want and they're willing to hire you.

In fact if you take the time you'd waste in getting good at interviewing and invest it in learning a new language, or framework, or following a MOOC etc, you'll probably end up with much better qualtiy work, because your actual work skills will get better. It might take a bit longer to get there but you'll (probably) stick around for longer and you'll get more out of it.