In case anyone else misunderstood the title, this article doesn't demonstrate the unique ability of Lisp to solve this problem. The method they use is constraint solving using backtracking. This could be implemented in any language.
It is a good illustration of code-as-data in Lisp. It's just that in this case, code-as-data doesn't seem to be a particular advantage in solving the problem (it's not a disadvantage either, just a stylistic difference).
So this article could have been 'A C solution to "Einsteins Riddle"' if C had been chosen as the language. Not a criticism, just a clarification, since HN is full of people looking for the true potential of new/different languages.
And even if they were, surely this is only a bad thing in that it might indicate that some potentially good engineers had been excluded from the workforce.
Is reverse-bigotry really so far gone that some people genuinely think that being an "antisocial 20-something" makes a person a worse engineer?
In my company, I've been told to avoid taking the interview training for as long as possible. That is, don't do the training, because once you do, they will start assigning you interviews.
This shows how much of a load on the existing workforce doing technical interviews already is. And the methods that the author is proposing would take even more time.
Given the fact that technical interviews have to be done by engineers, there is a tradeoff between the quality of the signal, and the time spent.
In my opinion, the biggest problem with technical interviews is that they are an art in themselves, and you can get better at the simply by solving more questions (they can be found easily online). The solution, I think, is to level the playing field by pointing interview candidates to the websites the archive interview questions.
It is a good illustration of code-as-data in Lisp. It's just that in this case, code-as-data doesn't seem to be a particular advantage in solving the problem (it's not a disadvantage either, just a stylistic difference).
So this article could have been 'A C solution to "Einsteins Riddle"' if C had been chosen as the language. Not a criticism, just a clarification, since HN is full of people looking for the true potential of new/different languages.