When you're playing by Google's rules, there's not much to be accomplished in the form of complaining. The problem that so by now many companies have been infe

When you're playing by Google's rules, there's not much to be accomplished in the form of complaining. The problem that so by now many companies have been infected with the idea of using "Google's rules" as a playbook that it's still going to take several years for the contagion to wash out of the system. Meaning we need to keep pushing back on multiple fronts. Given the insidiousness of the problem (and the psychological cost it has imposed on a generation of engineers; not to mention the sheer time cost) -- public exposure, followed by heaping mounds of ridicule (you can call that "complaining" if you like) would seem to be not only a valid, but unfortunately necessary part of our suppression strategy. Otherwise, the people who keep foisting these questions us (as if they were a cool and nifty way to size up candidates) -- just aren't going to get it through their heads. Personally, I would like to see what people thing about the actual solution to this particular problem... I used to enjoy solving problems like these, during my high school and college years. Sometimes really, really enjoy it. But now that I build real systems for a living (which generally involves much meatier problems to solve) -- and it's become part of the standard hazing process in far too many shops, for far too long -- I couldn't begin to care less.