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I'm currently one of those interviewers and we always ask about fun projects like these. We do that especially since that shows that they're not doing the job o

I'm currently one of those interviewers and we always ask about fun projects like these. We do that especially since that shows that they're not doing the job only for money, but also because they're passionate about developing software. This helps on multiple levels. For starters, if you focus on one task for too long, that may result in you having a too narrow view on that problem. While doing a fun project on the evening your mind wanders and sometimes suddenly you get an idea to approach that pesky work problem in a totally different way, even though you were thinking about something totally different. Or when you return to your specific work task you can just look at it from a fresh perspective. Or you get a new work-related task and suddenly think "Oh, I could just use part of my [Bobble-Head simulation] algorithm here and this could save me a few hours." If someone says that everything you are doing has to have a specific goal other than just "for the fun of it", I wouldn't want to work with them.

randcraw 5y ago
Folks with a deep interest to investigate complex systems in their spare time are unusual -- curious, inventive, and driven. They seek epiphanies about how the world works and are and willing to dig deep to learn about it. People of this type are displaying the rarest part of the 20,000 hours of practice that's most essential to achieving greatness -- they're pushing themselves to exceed their limits to explore the unknown -- to get better and see farther. And they're willing to try and fail. They're the inventors, the disruptors, the source of all creative change in the world. I suspect most employers won't welcome that attitude. Like most people, they're happy to wear blinders to disruption in their routine (AKA new ideas / better ways). So let them hire programmers who were accountants in a former life. If that kind of person is not you, then you're in luck. True to form, in choosing to discuss your passions, you interviewed differently. In doing that you discovered something very useful -- this is a place where you do NOT want to work. Epiphany revealed; the search continues.

randcraw 5y ago

Folks with a deep interest to investigate complex systems in their spare time are unusual -- curious, inventive, and driven. They seek epiphanies about how the world works and are and willing to dig deep to learn about it. People of this type are displaying the rarest part of the 20,000 hours of practice that's most essential to achieving greatness -- they're pushing themselves to exceed their limits to explore the unknown -- to get better and see farther. And they're willing to try and fail. They're the inventors, the disruptors, the source of all creative change in the world. I suspect most employers won't welcome that attitude. Like most people, they're happy to wear blinders to disruption in their routine (AKA new ideas / better ways). So let them hire programmers who were accountants in a former life. If that kind of person is not you, then you're in luck. True to form, in choosing to discuss your passions, you interviewed differently. In doing that you discovered something very useful -- this is a place where you do NOT want to work. Epiphany revealed; the search continues.