Honestly, it would serve more to guide my questions than it would to just flat dismiss someone as untalented or apathetic.
Curiosity and genuine interest develop at different times for different people depending on the circumstances of their life. They might have not discovered programming until later in their life, or they may have been soured by an bad experience early on and only came back later on.
For some people, they don't discover programming until university, but then find the absolutely love it and quickly develop a considerable talent. For these people, who do exist, the pre-university test is a false negative.
A lot of these tests people come up with are based on the concept that past performance indicates future potential. The thing about these tests is that they suck really bad, except that for certain things there are no other tests.
A meteorologist I once heard talking about weather phenomena in Alaska joked in his talk about how there are two possibilites for available weather data there: data sparse, or data void. It is much the same in finding good programmers. There are a lot of important considerations, and getting a feel on each depends on sparse data at best.
The best advice I can offer is don't take things like this too personally. Following advice from pg almost certainly applies to applying and interviewing for jobs as well.
Don't be put off if they say no. Rejection is almost always less personal than the rejectee imagines. Just move on to the next. (This applies to dating too.) - Paul Graham, Undergraduation.
Just take it as a sign that they probably would be judging you even after you are hired in ways that you might find unreasonable. Not every hacker is meant for every programming job.
Curiosity and genuine interest develop at different times for different people depending on the circumstances of their life. They might have not discovered programming until later in their life, or they may have been soured by an bad experience early on and only came back later on.
For some people, they don't discover programming until university, but then find the absolutely love it and quickly develop a considerable talent. For these people, who do exist, the pre-university test is a false negative.
A lot of these tests people come up with are based on the concept that past performance indicates future potential. The thing about these tests is that they suck really bad, except that for certain things there are no other tests.
A meteorologist I once heard talking about weather phenomena in Alaska joked in his talk about how there are two possibilites for available weather data there: data sparse, or data void. It is much the same in finding good programmers. There are a lot of important considerations, and getting a feel on each depends on sparse data at best. The best advice I can offer is don't take things like this too personally. Following advice from pg almost certainly applies to applying and interviewing for jobs as well.
Don't be put off if they say no. Rejection is almost always less personal than the rejectee imagines. Just move on to the next. (This applies to dating too.) - Paul Graham, Undergraduation.
Just take it as a sign that they probably would be judging you even after you are hired in ways that you might find unreasonable. Not every hacker is meant for every programming job.