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In job interviews I always zone in on the most complicated thing someone has worked on and then ask them to explain it to me. Often a thesis or a project or a large system or something low level to do with OS features etc...

It is amazing how rarely people can get it across to me in basic terms. In fact even the idea of breaking it down into non technical concepts seems to be surprising and alien to many people.

I really admire those who can.

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I fail all interviews when I explain complex things in simple terms. Must be some correlation here.

This has happened to me several times (not always in interviews). Especially when someone asks about machine learning and I start the explanation with regression, they get pissed. Nothing shows that you are trying to jump on a bandwagon than expecting needless complexity in explanations.

It's only one way to approach things. Many good people are not great explainers. However, I do find a willingness to try and get down to first principles a good sign. I only take it badly when people seem unable to think outside their expertise, or seem unaware of the layers above and beneath the particular strata they work within.

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