It's a good read for those that think that you need to be a super mathematician and know every algorithm to be an awesome programmer. Programming is much more than algorithms and maths. I think it's terrible that some companies judge programmers by how many algorithms they know, it seems like a bad filter, because you will filter out people like DHH (and a ton of other great programmers).
Companies are free to hire people any way they want, but is has always bothered me when they use those now-popular algorithmic tests in the interview and then determine that there are no qualified programmers. I always leaves me wondering if there would really be a developer shortage if hiring practices were different.
Just based on anecdotal evidence and personal experience: no, that's not it.
I work in a field where algorithms are not relevant for 99% of the time, an neither me nor anyone I know tests for them when hiring. Few us are Google, most of us just develop non-rocket science applications. And we can barely find the developers that can hack that.
It's a good read for those that think that you need to be a super mathematician and know every algorithm to be an awesome programmer. Programming is much more than algorithms and maths. I think it's terrible that some companies judge programmers by how many algorithms they know, it seems like a bad filter, because you will filter out people like DHH (and a ton of other great programmers).