[inverse_pi]

It's not about needing it in "the real world". It's about having fun. It's about the adrenalin rushing through your veins as the clock ticking down. It's about burst of joy when your brain just clicks and the invisible wall falls down, showing a path to the solution. I still do Putnam and IMO every year, I also occasionally take an hour or two during work and just solve Math problems. Solving problems is a hobby, just like video games. There's nothin really practical about it and there doesn't have to be.

[zerr]

What I'm saying is that aligning interviews to prefer candidates with this particular hobby (which is not related to the job) is not fair.

[svat]

I think I agree with you, and I say this as someone who was probably a beneficiary of such an alignment, after college.

But the submission does not mention job interviews. The linked book (the author is “one of the organizers of the Finnish Olympiad in Informatics […] coached and led the Finnish team at several international programming contests, including the International Olympiad in Informatics”) is someone's labour of love, written for people interested in this hobby. It brings joy and satisfaction to many people, most of them young students. Why throw cold water on them, by reacting to mention of such a book with terms like “irritating”, based on something that others do in some other setting entirely? Or, even if bringing up job interviews is justified (no doubt your irritation is real), it would be nice IMO to at least preface the comment by clarifying that the comment is not about the hobby/competitive-programming world that are the subject and audience of this book, but about something else.

[_pmf_]

> What I'm saying is that aligning interviews to prefer candidates with this particular hobby (which is not related to the job) is not fair.

It's also detrimental to the business.

[dmead]

if we're going to take the video game comparison further, then there is something better you could be doing with your time.

[rak00n]

For what? The man is happy doing his things. Who are you to judge him?