[shazow]

Perhaps an undervalued skill is determining the amount of accuracy necessary? When asked on the spot like that, you may be better off giving an education guess than shuffling through a giant binder.

Sometimes I'll see somebody being asked a question which I know they know the answer to but they'll misinterpret the motivation behind it and the desired answer. This makes me wonder, is it a situational thing or some kind of cultural/language barrier?

I also notice that solid hackers get along really well together because they can anticipate how the other person thinks and know what they want to know (or already know/don't care about). Hacker types seem to be much more culture-biased than the average person, so when you introduce somebody from the other end of the spectrum you get a huge rift.

I suppose that 10 minutes is enough time to notice if this rift exists.

[StavrosK]

I'm totally like that. Many times people will ask me questions (oddly, this only happens in interview-type situations) when I will just entirely space out on the motivation. I just can't understand what they want and the question either seems too vague or too obvious. I don't know if it's me or them, but it happens.