I was a bit spooked by the crazy in depth questions the coworkers were saying about CSG. After having dinner and a few drinks with Pops at the Skyybox it hit me exactly why I am spooked - I don't operate that way. See it is similar to my debate adjudicating career... After the first few years I stopped remembering every round, what was said, and what was argued. I took a substantially longer view of the field. Sure if pressed with pulling out a chunk of flow from a round I could cobble together the RFD (reason for decision), or when discussed points explain this or that... but do I need to know the nuances of the round on recall? Not so much.

My career development as an software developer is about the same. Sure at one point it was cool to be able to recall each chunk of code I wrote, or apply some esoteric efficiency to it to increase the big-o notation, but why? It's the typical programming law - any code you wrote six months ago could be confused as being written by someone else.

I have a vast chunk of experience that doesn't need to be memorized. Keep that for the Bossman - he's good at that. No I take the view that I can write code but if there is a specific problem I came across given about half an hour searching the internet I can replicate my solution. Why keep it all on my wetware hard disk when I can offload it and remember the path to getting to it? The crucial piece is I can identify the problem, research a solution, and still see the forest amidst the trees.

If I keep that in mind the Tuesday phone interview should go well.. and hopefully the subsequent in person interview.

I am not a repository for crazed computer nuances.. I'm the complete package. Interfacing with customers, testers, analysts, and designers to form a working package of the cogs the hyper nuanced folks go. Now that my friends is what a senior developer is all about.

(do the hokey pokey now!)