I'd already read both of those, and yes I take chances on people who are smart but don't fit the mold, so to speak. I've hired straight grads from performance arts universities, and I've hired people with 15 years of industry experience who are changing from a related field. So please take your condescending preconceptions elsewhere; the only thing I care about is whether they can do the job, and if they will be pleasant to work with.
Unless you've been exposed to the raw resume data that gets sent, you have no idea what I'm dealing with, and how unqualified the majority of applicants are. I'm an engineer myself, from an unknown university, in a foreign country. My degree isn't even in CS, and I had better problem solving / coding skills straight out of high school than the majority of the applicants.
I've run plenty of interviews, thanks. And as a result I've developed some strong opinions on what's wrong with them, and it's not that some monstrous fraction of people are completely unable to code or solve problems.
https://danluu.com/hiring-lemons/
https://danluu.com/programmer-moneyball/
Which you should read, along with the multiple other things linked from them about interviewing and hiring.
I can make a very similar argument from long experience, but Dan is more HN-trendy and thus more likely to be believed.