- I had never used the functools library in Python before, so because I couldn't answer trivia questions about it, my Python skills were low. (FYI: You can read the entire documentation on the functools library in ~3 minutes). And this was after an initial interview where I apparently got the trivia question that 'no one' gets (which I'll note was actually more relevant to general Python knowledge as it was about keyword args).

- I had 'amazing technical skill' but because I didn't have enough side-projects to prove that I "love the web" enough to work with them.

I eventually ended up in my current position of lead developer at an early-stage startup, but it frustrates me a bit when I hear about a lack of talent while at the same time feeling like my own experience is that startups are being very picky in their hiring practices (i.e. looking for any chink in the armor, no matter how small, and then flat-out rejecting someone because of it). If they were rejecting me for such those kinds of reasons, then either:

1. They had someone better than me that they decided to hire instead.

2. They really aren't that hard up to talent, and decided to wait for someone "better"[1] to come along.

[1] For various definitions of "better," as in this case it just means jumps through the hiring hoops correctly.