The problem with tech interviews is that it’s super rare to find the right combination of elite technical skills and emotional intelligence required to properly

The problem with tech interviews is that it’s super rare to find the right combination of elite technical skills and emotional intelligence required to properly assess a candidate. Those people are usually busy. What you end up with is someone who is either a mid-level engineer and almost totally green to recruiting or an HR drone with zero technical skills who is liable to believe a bunch of bullshit. Both tend to ask stupid interview questions they learned from a book because they’re out of their depth in some way. This is not a situation unique to software either; it affects nearly every professional specialization (especially ones where the pay gap between an HR role and a functional role is as big as it is in tech). You’re right, it makes zero sense to put your interviewer on the defensive — being likable is almost always more important than being good.