This problem doesn't happen to me when I'm delivering a product pitch, speaking at a conference, meeting with investors, or any other situation where I'm on equal footing with my audience. Frequently, though, I ask to get back to people later with answers to difficult questions. I also prepare fanatically for those situations, where it's very difficult to prepare for a random tech interview.
A huge part of this is simply finding ways to stack the deck in my favor. A great interviewer knows that it's THEIR job to figure out what I can do well. Most people are not great interviewers. This makes a technical interview a total crapshoot that has never worked out for me.
My post is definitely suggesting that companies should examine their process to see if they're filtering for the right things. More importantly, I'm explaining how I've solved this problem for myself. Will I miss opportunities with my approach? Absolutely. I just now believe that I find better ones with my new method.
One caveat... I mostly consider a question like, "Can you explain what a closure is?" to be conversational. Simple knowledge quizzes are great fodder for a phone screen just to find out if someone even belongs in the room and whether they match the needed skills in general way. Where I get into trouble is with with whiteboard coding, brainteasers, etc.
We could have a great chat about async front end dev and then I'd stare blankly at you when you asked about CSS specifics. That's productive and tells you about my experience, though not my aptitude.
