Realization: Resumes have little correlation with me saying yes to a potential hire.

Instead, I chat about coding like baseball. We should both be fans of something. A natural chat about the dev's specialties, preferences, & opinions quickly exposes the edges of their knowledge.

This approach is also disarming. It doesn't feel like an interview. It's merely two people chatting about things they enjoy. When I say "configuring x is hard" and they say "woah, what's x?", genuine curiosity is a good thing.

I'm shocked how few people say "what's x?" when they don't know the answer. I've hired many people who didn't know the answers, but were genuinely excited to get better and could list specific things they wanted to learn next.

The people who get good are those who want to.

Saying "I don't know" isn't a bad thing. It's refreshing honesty. Especially when followed by genuine interest in the answer. A developer willing to admit this will also be candid when they don't understand requirements or the tech approach. That's key to avoid wasting time.

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