I wonder if technical knowledge truly matters outside of those companies that try to filter people based on tests...

And if not... then I'm just studying for myself. lol

The last test that I took that was testing actual and relevant knowledge was… let me think… never.

other than the scant computer fundamentals the things I learned getting my degree never came up again and I just had to learn new tech on the job

fundamentals are good because you can build a model of how things work under the hood and then when stuff breaks you can debug it because you know these things

there is some merit to learning things even if they're useless: people generally build stuff the same way with the same concepts. like if you learn one programming language you're basically set for most things in all the others. but the person hiring you will be upset you have to look up to know the exact method names which to me just seems like a nitpick

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the argument for school I heard is that despite the degree being useless it's still a good filtering mechanism. because it shows you someone who will stick to something and follow through on it

I think another part is someone who will follow orders and be obedient even though they may know better. which interview tests would do

looking it up a little I don't think society has realized the obedience problem

I spent a bunch of time reading random business books and a lot of them talked about how difficult it is to make "innovative" employees, teams, leaders, etc. basically naturally humans select for obedience and seem to not realize that they're causing stifling with it. it seems like a big problem in all sectors of business that many very prominent people were trying to solve which is a little funny

and I don't think this is isolated to business. I think people select their friends and communities, their favourite child, based on obedience to their will as well. it seems to be some subconscious drive. that's of course at odds with innovation, change, or scientific breakthroughs like the earth being round or washing hands removing bacteria. I would guess it's related to narcissistic intolerance

it's not about being right (nobody cares, actually they hate that), but showing loyalty to the group

and being right you not only show that you are disloyal to the group, but also that the group sucks, and that causes irrational aggression like you've attacked someone's beliefs. the same reaction that happens when a narcissist's self-concept is threatened, or when you question someone's religious beliefs expertly enough but their emotions don't want to flip that perspective because then a bunch of their models that keep their whole worldview propped up would tumble with it and that would be too stressful so they just decide to be "lazy" and not grow, not question, and make up some shallow irrational strategy to keep it all intact and duct tape it dishonestly

same exact pattern when I suggested business improvements 😁

which business books would mention as cliches like "we don't do that here", or "this is how we've always done it"

tech looks "innovative", has the identity / self-concept of innovation (haha), but it just made the natural psychological urges backdoor elsewhere

@Lensflare lmfao.

@Lensflare I did, at one company we had real life use cases that actually happened. They described their software and then you got a list of issues and you must reason why those issues happened. Did not solve all, thought i would fail. But did not. Hired. It was a very good test actually.

@Lensflare now i think about it, errors. That is how you actually can test people if they have experience. You can only know them if you had them. You could maybe even figure out somones level a bit with that.

@jestdotty What would you say these scant computer fundamentals are?

Yes, fundamentals help further when things get tough.

Seems familiar of Design Patterns. Yes, the same constructs too. In fact, I get upset with myself if I have to look things up but there are lazy developers who swear by constantly having to look things up and calling themselves 'dynamic'.

Yes, I have no issues on the degree side as I have one from an accredited college.

Being obedient is not my thing. lmao. I rather take strategic lead rather than yes-nod my way through a project. In fact, it irritates me.

One mistake I did make once was fully cheat on a personality test (by answering all expected answers) but that came back to bite me because they expected a Harry Osborn and they got a Spider-Man. lol

@jestdotty The obedience pattern gets really annoying when you see some teams literally following their leader around like a bunch of mindless sheep, with their shoulders and heads hanging. It's a pretty sad sight.

Interesting. Yes, the obedience causes a whole lot of potential ideas to be held back just so the manager can stroke their ego. Having been in various teams I realized this pattern too. One big mouth who tries to shut up all the rest. And you know what's worst? Nothing ever changes and things get done the bad way for decades, which gets accepted as 'normalized' and 'optimal' and becomes an excuse not to invest in anything.

I read a business book or two as well; Michael Porter on management and The Toyota Way being two, and then a bunch of books on Performance Management.

@jestdotty Speaking of management, I did watch an excellent YouTube video on Management from an excellent manager. That guy really knows what he's talking about. For instance, he mentioned how the manifestation of a problem in the real world is a three-factor issue: personal, social, environmental. What baffles me is that most managers don't even bother to look this deep at issues and they just order, order, and order the person around. Heyyy, what if the person doesn't feel good? Not a problem, apparently.

Ah.. whatever happened to true collaboration? That's one of the formulas to success.

Yeah, I've quickly become a problem at the company when I constantly wanted to prove my right (when they were wrong about a ton of things).

@jestdotty Yeah, the lame "There's no 'I' in team". Whatever is wrong with showing that the group sucks - objectively? lol. I know, especially the self-butt-kissing manager's beliefs. People have to be more open. Yes, managers like comfy zone; like the expert manager said: "They like to receive the big money but they don't like to do the hard work for it". Their duct-tape strategies make me scream.

lol

I hate "this is how we always done it". lol

It is indeed how the tool is used.

@jestdotty When you question a country a system a government you are a traitor to the group.

I used calculus to write a PID loop for an embedded system once. Rarely ever break out the math past conversions anymore.