My initial answer may have been a bit short, but it wasn't actually binary; my response would depend on, among other things, how the question was asked, as well

My initial answer may have been a bit short, but it wasn't actually binary; my response would depend on, among other things, how the question was asked, as well as other indicators. As a mid-career professional, however, that question's a sign that I'm probably not going to fit into the "culture". To be honest, I've been through my share of interviews and I only remember getting a similar question once (it was related to technical blogging/participation on tech sites like StackOverflow or similar). In that case they made it clear that it wasn't a necessity but it was definitely nice to have. I went through the first interview and was asked back for another, but I dropped out of the process for unrelated reasons. Regardless, if it makes me not want to work for you, and you don't want to hire me because of my reaction to the question, then my likely response would be win/win, right? :)