I sense infinite recursion pending ...

From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robin Allenson
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 5:18 AM
To: Christopher Schmidt
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Geowanking] Urban Mapping seeking Data Wrangler

I always liked the self-referential interview question (although it works in a 
variety of contexts, mostly geeky): "If you were me what question would you 
ask?" then -- answer that question. Or "What is the best possible question for 
this interview?"

Cheers
Robin
2009/9/10 Christopher Schmidt 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 01:02:12PM -0700, Anselm Hook wrote:
> Indeed it was fun to try the puzzles out - they were a distraction
> from an already busy day down here in SF!
>
> It could be fun, but perilous to my schedule, to make a list of
> puzzles like this.
ITA Software is well known in the Boston area for having puzzles as part
of their job application process:

http://www.itasoftware.com/careers/jlisting.html?uid=700679

has a list of some of them.

Their puzzles lean more towards the 'algorithmic' side (like the second
question that Ian posted), and one of the key things they used to do
in the area was have an algorithmic problem that can be expressed on a
billboard -- something like "How many palindromes are there in the english
language that can be expressed in fewer than 12 letters" or something like
that. Apparently they used to get a number of their candidates that way.

I think Microsoft started doing the same kind of thing when they
moved to Cambridge for one of their offices.

Of course, Cambridge -- with MIT, Harvard, and approximately 100 other
colleges in a 20 mile radius -- is somewhat uniquely suited for subway
system advertisements directing technical challenges at the riders of the
system.

-- Chris

>  - me
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:46 PM, Brandon Martin-Anderson
> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> > Ironically Ian's pre-screen test is more likely, I think, to pique people's
> > attention than to weed them out. Hackers are compulsive problem solvers. I
> > was tempted to solve the problems - and I've worked for Ian.
>
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--
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta

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--
Cheers
Robin

Robin Allenson
InnerBalloons
+31 642 396041
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