So Hasin Hayder’s post about questions that he asks during an interview. Specifically, if they know the name of the benevolent dictators, or creators of the languages and tools the person will be using for the job.

This has brought up a lot of discussion on his blog, with people saying he’s being unreasonable, and some agreeing with him. So, I thought I’d chime in as well. Chris has already done, so I’m going to join the bandwagon :).

Initially, I was in the “Hasin’s being a little harsh camp”, but I think I understand what he’s trying to do/say. Not knowing who Rasmus, or Michael, or Guido are, doesn’t mean you’re a bad programmer, but it could possibly give an indication of your passion. This is not a surefire way to tell though, usually I use the more direct method, and ask them what their passion is. Why? Because it’s easier to find out what their passion is. It’s fairly easy to ask, and there are no assumptions being made.
At the same time, one of the biggest things I look for, is the ability to say “I don’t know”. Even if it’s for something as trivial as “who’s the father of PHP?”, PHP is mature enough now, that not everyone will know, someone could be coming from a very strong Python, Perl or “name your language here” background. If someone told me they didn’t know, I’d hope they say but I could find out.. One thing I’ve learnt, is that if you go to a job where you aren’t learning anything new, you’re going to hate your job.

Knowing who Rasmus is, doesn’t indicate competency, but it could indicate my ability to carry on a conversation with you at a bar.