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Comment by h8_interviews | Hacker News Reader

If I could get you to express that in an interview, I'd say something like "do you have any tools you find value in customizing?" and try to lead the direction in whatever you think of as "custom" in your world, so I can hear how it helps you be effective, so I can understand what you think it means to be effective.

I probably shouldn't have picked text editor as the example, it's really not about that.

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To which my answer would be: I've been in this game for 25 years. I lost my will to configure long ago, and now just use the default. The default is better tested, good enough for most tasks, and doesn't leave you hobbled whenever you have to work on a fresh machine as you try to remember what custom things you had set up, or if your config git repo is properly up to date and doesn't introduce unwanted dependencies (or if you can even connect to it).

It's also a major source of WFM (works for me) syndrome, where something in your custom stuff is unintentionally needed by the build.

I'd rather be building things than playing with my tools. If I really need something esoteric, I'll find another tool or write a Python script

Same for me, a custom configured environment has often become yet one more thing that can break and needs maintenance. I make sure I have basic emacs keybindings but that’s almost it. In my experience, the people that spend most time on customizing the tools have mostly been junior developers. Though if you asked me on productivity tools we’d have an interesting discussion. I guess it’s just a matter of focus.

lol. This is why I reach for vi

Echoing the other comment about bias, it seems like a strong personal preference of yours, but it's unclear whether this is actually a good indicator of a strong fit or not.

Like @kstenerud, I tend to keep the default settings as I am happy to just learn the default to at least avoid things from breaking, when the next IT/infrastructure update happens at "the company", or maybe I have to use a clean machine to do some coding.

Instead, I spend some time to look how I can be more productive (keyboard shortcuts, etc), and then will just leave it at that. I've had both types of colleagues: customizing/non-customizing, both types have been high performing.

I find value in tools that don't need much customizing.

A lot of the effort people devote to customizing their tools doesn't seem to be about productivity or effectiveness in any measurable sense.

> "do you have any tools you find value in customizing?"

Anecdata: don't think I have any? My best tools for years were pencil and paper, and I usually get things done, very fast.

Similar to other replies, I also am not so interested in customizing my tools. I use a small number of tools and as out of the box as possible (but learn them well). If you led the conversation in that direction I'd probably try to steer it away.

So it's horses for courses.

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