[JoeAltmaier]

There are more cases that get under your radar: good developers that won't suffer a coding interview. Folks that don't do well with someone looking over their shoulder and talking to them while they're trying to work. Folks interviewing for a job that isn't simple algorithms.

To be honest, most data structure wonks are great at scaling cloud services or massive middleware business logic. But not all programming is like that.

It's easy to fall into "If they won't do a coding interview, they have something to hide!" But it doesn't (only) work like that.

[filoleg]

> Folks that don't do well with someone looking over their shoulder and talking to them while they're trying to work

I am one of those people myself, absolutely cannot do it. But interviewing isn't like that and shouldn't be. It is more like, cooperatively working on a problem with a colleague and then presenting and explaining it to your teammates. That's a pretty valuable skill at work, even necessary, I would say.

The whole "loner dev in his cave" stereotype, most of the time, just materializes in the form of a dude writing code that no one can understand or maintain, with a cherry on top being that dude not being able to effectively explain it to other people either.

[JoeAltmaier]

Sure that's exactly the same thing. At least what I was talking about. Talk to me while I'm trying to get into the code, is like trying to talk to someone trying to write a book or balance a checkbook or really concentrate on anything at all. Re-casting it as simple cooperation is disengenuous. Sure you want to explain things to a teammate; that's entirely missing the point.

If I'm talking, if I'm listening to you, then I'm not coding. They are orthogonal activities, at least for me. Want me to 'talk you through' my design thoughts? Thanks for your time, goodbye.