On Dec 31, 2005, at 11:23 PM, kravnus wolf wrote:

> Talking about coding contest...... If the problem was
> book case senario, good but what if it is a unique case?
> Would the question be a mere challenge or a good exercise?

FWIW, I really like the things that end up as "coding contests"
on PICList.  The exchange, refinement, and bug fixing that happens
much more resembles real life, and is fun to watch, educational
in both the explanations and thought processes that show up, and
useful in the results...  They're nothing like what most people
think of as contests, though...

That's because...  You know the old saying about no one ever
remembers who comes in second?  Well, contests in general and
the current crop of TV-style contests in particular seem to
spend a awful lot of time believing and re-enforcing that view,
but it's basically bull.  Want to have a contest that starts
with 10,000 recent grads and keeps applying contests till they
wind up with the one winning "american geek idol"?  Great.  You
keep your winner, and I'll happily hire the next 5.  Or any 5 in
the top 20.  Or any 10 from the top 100 for that matter.  The
real world isn't about finding the BEST person to do anything.
It's about getting things DONE.

(cisco prides itself in hiring "the top 5%" of the applicant pool
(a source of many a nasty comment when we're annoyed at some
fellow employee :-)  From the 10,000 candidates I mention above,
that's 500 people.  And we need them all (or did, back before
bubbles bursting...))

BillW

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