[yef]

VB Tech Journal? I don't know, man, this sounds like a personal friend test of the author or something.

Have them program something in the interview. Watch them use their chosen text editor as they work through your problem. Have them run their program and watch them iterate through a few code/test/debug cycles. Once it's working, ask them for a minor but logical improvement, and watch their reaction. Dread at having to go back to the code, or gusto in making it better? How fast can they go back and edit their own code?

For whatever job you're hiring for, have them do the job as part of the interview process.

[joshuaxls]

Did you notice /humor/ in the URL?

[yef]

Nope :) I tend to read very quickly, and since this is a topic I'm truly interested, I guess I hoped that the author was serious. Thanks for the callout.

[joshuaxls]

Welcome! I had a similar reaction, until I saw what was in the URL. I was very pissed since I'm a dog person.

[learninglisp]

Man, and I was thinking I was one of the "good" programmers....