I think your post was tongue-in-cheek, and it is maybe one of my favorite HN posts ever. That said, I get a little bummed that there are no Back to the Future 2-style hoverboards, that I don't have a personal flying car, and that I still have to shower every day. I'd love a polymorphic phone screen, and am bummed that this display isn't that. Just out of curiosity, I rubbed some Vaseline in my ear just now, and must admit that it is more of a bummer than the lack of polymorphic phone screens.
> It'd be pretty neat to chat with a stranger while strolling the Louvre.
Please tell me you meant while THEY'RE strolling the Louvre. Please. Because if you're using a web app to talk to a stranger while simultaneously strolling the Louvre (I'm not sure "strolling" is what one does to the Louvre) I believe there's something wrong with you.
I've had experiences similar to yours and have also had the same reaction. Technical interviews and whiteboarding is one thing, but projects -- especially MULTIPLE projects! -- get very obnoxious very fast.
The actual project is a drain on my time and energy of course. In addition, by dragging out the interviewing process over weeks or months, you're killing my actual desire to work there. Two months of hoop-jumping is annoying, and I'm embarassed that I ever put up with it.
I make clear now to any company I'm interviewing with two things:
1. Let's get to "yes" or "no" quickly
2. I'll do one project as long as it can not only be completed in 2 hours, but that 2 hours' worth of work on the project will yield something that I can be proud to show you.
#1 is obvious, but #2 is very, very important. If your project is "create a blog app", yes I can complete it in two hours. But it will be gross and not something I'm proud of. I will definitely spend more time on it getting it just right so that when you see it you'll be blown away.
What does this mean for the interviewing company? Don't give me an open-ended project. Tell me specifically what kind of thing you want, what functionality you want, and don't put shit like "...anything else you think is cool for bonus points!" That, IMO, translates to hidden requirements and guessing what you actually want.
How would a startup measure the effectiveness of an interview practice or calibrate off of candidates' responses if they don't put it into practice based on the experience of other companies/people?
I think there's a cargo cult mentality around hiring process. Hiring the right person is hard, and hiring the wrong person can be devastating, so everyone's looking for a magic elixir.
Many of these exotic/novelty interview processes are completely disrespectful of the candidates' time as well. In the past few months I've undertaken a few pretty "rigorous" application processes. A couple of Bay Area startups (I don't live in the Bay Area), and a bunch of other companies both locally and for remote working possibilities.
Startups seem to be the worst when it comes to turning the hiring process into a huge time sink for the candidate. At its worst was one of the Bay Area startups. They outline a 7- or 8-phase interview process. There are independent programming exercises, pair programming over Skype, phone interviews, then at the end they have the candidate in for "cultural fit evaluation" which turned into a six-hour interview gauntlet after flying across the country that morning.
Another bit of inconsideration of my time and my actual job where I work to make money was a company that wanted me to come in in the middle of the afternoon on a workday for 2 hours to "meet the team". I told them I did not feel comfortable leaving the office at 1:30 and go AWOL/take a half day of vacation so I could interview at another place. I wound up backing out of the interview process because of their unwillingness to pick another meeting time, even over lunch.
Then finally tomorrow I am meeting with a company, and they told me yesterday afternoon that they'd like me to prepare a presentation on something I'm passionate about (they liked Jeff Atwood's blog post[1] I guess). This actually I don't mind at all, and think it's a great idea... but I need more than a couple of days' notice. I work 8-10 hours a day, commute a couple more, and by the time I get home I've got 3 hours to spend with my kid, relax, eat dinner, etc. In that 3 hours I also need to prepare a talk on a topic I'm passionate about.
To me that last one is emblematic of these interview processes: good ideas, but not structured with much consideration toward respecting the time of the candidate. I get that hiring the right person is crucial for small teams, no doubt, but I'm getting tired enough of jumping through hoops that I'm not really interested in doing it anymore, even for a great job where I know I can make an awesome contribution.