During a recent job interview, I was asked to write some simple Perl programs on a dry-erase board. I wasn't the least bit nervous, and yet I found it was a very awkward experience; it took me too long to solve the problems, and my answers were very clumsy.

Now for one thing, I'm just not a quick person; sitting around afterwards, better and better solutions coalesced in my mind. But more interestingly, I later played with coding on paper and on a WYSIWYG editor, and found in both cases that it was harder for me to express myself than while looking at the black-and-white vi screen to which I'm accustomed.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? I must say, I found the whole thing disconcerting, and I'm not sure what it says about my grasp of what I know. Maybe I should teach myself to deal with different environments.

In reply to Conditioned Response (or lack thereof) by Petruchio

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