In context, I take it to mean "don't do the normal format of interviewing, use discussions". No amount of phrasing is going to convince you that you aren't sit

In context, I take it to mean "don't do the normal format of interviewing, use discussions". No amount of phrasing is going to convince you that you aren't sitting in an interview. I wouldn't want to convince you you're not in an interview anyway, that seems pretty dishonest. There's just way more value in having a (albeit can be fairly technical) discussion rather than typical call/response style of interview that consists pretty much solely of "did you memorize what I'm looking for". Particularly because I don't expect the person I'm interviewing to be a master of everything, having a discussion can lead to some common ground where we can go in deep on some of your actual previous experience.