Could it be that I am simply fed up with the infantilization creeping into our business everywhere, pushing everyone to standardize on the lowest common denominator, yet I am capable of "building rockets" in metaphorical sense and refuse to play this insane game? Maybe I wouldn't want to work for a person like you and am assessing your abilities during interview, coming to a conclusion that we aren't compatible and I would be just massively slowed down by your attitude instead of unleashing my full potential? I've wasted too much time on these types of people, it never led to anything, and my filters are now calibrated to identify and reject them quickly.
It certainly could be, and I don't know I'd even disagree with you. A fair proportion of us here have ambitions and a bit of an ego. But the ones I'd want to work with also have some empathy. I know I'm good, but the interviewer doesn't, so if it they ask me to show I can do 2+2 I'll tell them 4 because it costs me nothing and the only reason they're asking is that the last candidate talked the talk and then said -17 and burned them. I mean, it's been a long time now since I did an interview, but that's what I'd do.
Now that I think of it, why are you interviewing if you're such a hotshot? Shouldn't they be chasing you? Or was this purely hypothetical and you're already set for life?
I am beginning to be intolerant to anyone one-sidedly requesting my empathy; I did it for multiple years but it turned people into takers and I believe they need to grow up personally instead of expecting somebody to be nice to them when they aren't willing to be.
I don't leak personal info about me on HN; let's say I have my own clients and too little time to do more things, and from time to time I interview as a sport to keep me up-to-date in case I need it in the future. In the past year and something I turned down Mark Z's company a few times as well as I work on more interesting things for more $ and with more flexibility (travel around the world yay! studying part-time at top schools etc.) than I would have achieved there.
