You're forgetting they all read all the way through cracking the code interview, the most difficult math book in history.

Coding interview books: how to use bit fields to save a marginal amount of memory while making your algorithm work only with values of n <= 64.

That's both funny and true. ValueClick hired some celebrity nerds to write a new ad platform, and I hear it supported exactly 32 advertisers. :)

Which only says that they are good at solving artificial puzzles, but nothing about whether they are good developers or generally intelligent.

i like your sarcasm :D.

Even with a top-tier company, recruiting top-tier employees, doesn't implie top-tier-interesting-work. I do think many of the top-tier companies do have good people, because they can pay for them, but it almost seems like it's a defensive move to keep talent away from other companies, rather than utilizing that talent to the utmost.

>Top-tier company != top-tier employees.

True, but it typically means top-tier interviewer...which would make it more difficult to discover areas where they are lacking.