One of the things I did while in Boston for the Fall VON show a month ago was drop by the old 'Tute (as MIT is affectionately known by all its students). The first night I got to Beantown, I crossed the Charles and went to Cambridge with another friend to get a quick tour (from 77 Mass Ave. to the Kendall Square, via the famed "infinite corridor"). Of course, on the way, I picked up a copy of The Tech (the student newspaper) and found an interesting insert on that particular edition.

I am talking about the G.L.A.T. (no, that does not stand for a type of Kosher food). I am talking about the Google Labs Aptitude Test. Apparently, Google had been on campus recruiting some talent, and wanted to leave a mark in testing future candidates.  Of course, some people claimed Google was taking a page out of Microsoft's book (by the way, there is an interesting book on the subject named "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle", by William Poundstone).  We are all familiar with stories of Microsoft interviews in which questions such as title of the book (or why are manholes round, etc.) are made to perspective employees. 

But Google had a few quite interesting puzzles to solve, and in my opinion, some of the questions were more geared towards also knowing the persona of a candidate (more or less like a hidden type of Myers Briggs test).  For instance, one question read: "It's 2 PM on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Bay Area.  You're minutes from the Pacific Ocean, redwood forest hiking trails and world class cultural attractions.  What do you do?" Or what about this one: "This space left intentionally blank. Please fill it with something that improves upon emptiness."

So here are a few of the GLAT teasers (will have some more in a future installment):

Does anyone want to take a stab at some of these questions?