Good question
I am a big podcasting fan. I usually spend about two hours a day listening to mainly tech personalities interviews. This is a nice way to understand industry trends and learning about cool new projects. Here is a list of some of the podcasts I subscribe to:
- IT Conversations (In particular Technometria)
- Late night Cocoa
- TWiT (This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte)
- The Scoble show and other podcasts from the podtech network
The more I listen to interviews, the more I get upset when I hear that most interviewees follow the exact same pattern when asked a question. They usually will start answering by saying something like “Excellent question” or “That is a great question”. That feels so fake when you hear it over and over again. It is obvious that there is some form of consensus in the US (I haven’t seen signs of this spreading to other countries yet) that this is the correct way to behave during an interview. I understand that by acquiring this habit you some additional time to think about your answer and you may even please the interviewer. However, while this technique may have been effective at the beginning, when few where using the technique, now that everyone has learned it, it just feels unnatural and even plain silly, specially when the question isn’t that brilliant.