Often, I'll deliberately give the naive "pointers are references" answer in a job interview, just to gauge the interviewer's response. It's actually a good pro

Often, I'll deliberately give the naive "pointers are references" answer in a job interview, just to gauge the interviewer's response. It's actually a good proxy to determining company culture. If he starts to patiently explain the difference, I'll stop him and talk about the practical implications of the concept, and we'll have a good laugh. If he gets annoyed or stiffens and things become tense, I'll have a good proxy for what to expect should I make the mistake of working there.