I have been doing a ton of interviews lately. It seems that the recruiters at my company have been sending me one or two candidates a week, for several weeks now. So yesterday, in an amazing occurrence of harmonic convergence, the subject of interviews came up on the altdotnet list. It was then that I decided that I wanted to get more scientific about my interview process. Prior to yesterday, I had just been "winging it". So, I started putting a list together and emailed it to a few people asking for additions. I sure like to say "So" a lot.
My colleague, Ben Scheirman (who, like half of altdotnet has written about interviewing in the last day or so), made some good suggestions to my current list of questions and offered some interesting additions.
In the "Really specific .NET" category, one that stands out is: Tell me how a .NET hashtable works under the hood.
Well, darn, I wrote a hashtable in C about a million years ago and I understand the fundamentals of these things, but just what is going on under the hood in the .NET version? So, I busted out Reflector and decided to take a quick peek. And discovered that I am going to have to go back in when I get some more free time, because it turns out, there is a lot of interesting stuff in there. Hashtables are hashtables, but there is a bunch of .NETy stuff in there that I have not seen before.
Now, to get to the point of all of this. Last year, Justice Gray did a post on how he was going to become a better developer. And then everyone else did their version. It was quite the rage for a little while. It was really neat.
Yesterday, I started thinking, "You know J.P., you could learn tons of stuff just asking people for some of their best interview questions". And that is what I am going to do this year. I am just going to start randomly emailing people and asking them for a few good interview questions...just to see what happens. I will use this to find gaps in my knowledge. In areas where I discover that I only have a hazy understanding, I will solidify my knowledge. I am not talking about the "What is the life cycle of an ASP.NET page" type question, either. I am looking for pure, sweet, goodness. I will post more on this experiment as it progresses.
Posted on
January 16, 2008 15:31
by
JP
experiments
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I am a lefty, but I do some things right-handed, like cutting with scissors and playing the guitar. About a week ago, the thought came to me "Can I teach myself to write with my right hand?" The goal being, of course, to utilize my entire brain, develop new neural pathways, potentially fight off future dementia, and generally expand my thinking and creative power. Possibly learn how to catch things on fire...just by thinking about it!
It's really hard. I had to have a right-handed person show me how he holds the paper. Also, I have a tendency to squeeze the pen like a boa constrictor around a poodle. So, my right forearm is starting to look like Popeye. Plus, it takes serious concentration. I have managed to produce some semi-intelligible writing. It looks like a little old lady wrote it. I have also produced some stuff that looks like a trained monkey wrote it, too. I have achieved no consistency whatsoever.
I keep a pad of paper next to my keyboard at work and practice while I am compiling. I have also started looking for other things to do right-handed, like brushing my teeth and eating oatmeal. One side effect I have noticed is that my dreams, which have always been really bizarre, are now so bizarre that I am not even going to talk about them with other people. Another thing I have noticed is that my right eye seems be more dominant at times. What? You mean you never noticed that you look out of one eye "more" than the other? Well, maybe I am imaging that, but it seems like that is what is happening.
Once my brain is aligned up, I will post some pictures that show my progress.
Posted on
January 16, 2008 15:01
by
JP
running
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Last Sunday, I finished the marathon at 4:37:something-something. It's a mediocre time and frankly, I am pissed. On top of that, I almost croaked and had to go see the medic afterwards. Totally embarrassing. Somewhere during the end of the race, I think I almost died. I couldn't feel my arms and when I drank some water I almost threw up. There were some spots in front of my eyes that kind of looked like an oil slick in a puddle of rain. Everyone kept yelling "You can do it, JP!!!" This did not have the effect you might think.
(I am very perplexed here: How did things go so wrong?)
A guy I know, who quite honestly used to be a seriously chubby dude (sorry, Shawn), placed 97th out of all male competitors (incidentally, he's my new hero). He finished 1/2 second over 3 hours. He's probably pissed about missing 2:59 by a 1.5 seconds. Another guy I know finished around 5:30. He's pissed, too. He's not really sure what happened, either.
It's my 5th marathon, but my first in 8 years or so. I've never approached these things scientifically so I probably get what I deserve. I just trained by running as much as I could. Let me reiterate - this method just doesn't work. So, this year, I have decided to train with The Kenyan Way. The guy that heads this outfit up is one serious badass. I am also currently reading Advanced Marathoning and learning much about the science behind running.
Basically, my goal is to destroy the marathon next year. I am going to run it in 3:30.