>If you rate engineers on their ability to memorize something they could have looked up on Google in 5 seconds, what are you really actually testing?
Repeating what I said earlier - You can't build a plane by opening a physics textbook. Starting with a LARGE pool of fundamental and higher order building blocks allows you to fit them together using whatever skill/talent you have at solving problems, in a MUCH shorter time than someone who doesn't.
Someone who constantly google's basic stuff is a net drag on a team's productivity. Rather than operating at their skill level, they're constantly being distracted by having to task-switch and waste hours researching stuff. The internet isn't going to magically know the exact problem you're working on and whether certain data structures or algorithms are appropriate for solving it, or if they need further tuning depending on what your priorities are, or what have you. Getting questions answered, and googling/learning about CS stuff is great on its own, and should be encouraged as much as possible, but it is not a substitute for actually retaining that knowledge.
Repeating what I said earlier - You can't build a plane by opening a physics textbook. Starting with a LARGE pool of fundamental and higher order building blocks allows you to fit them together using whatever skill/talent you have at solving problems, in a MUCH shorter time than someone who doesn't.
Someone who constantly google's basic stuff is a net drag on a team's productivity. Rather than operating at their skill level, they're constantly being distracted by having to task-switch and waste hours researching stuff. The internet isn't going to magically know the exact problem you're working on and whether certain data structures or algorithms are appropriate for solving it, or if they need further tuning depending on what your priorities are, or what have you. Getting questions answered, and googling/learning about CS stuff is great on its own, and should be encouraged as much as possible, but it is not a substitute for actually retaining that knowledge.