This is a human cognitive bias known as effort justification, wherein your value of the “in” crowd and its selection process goes up substantially in proportion to the barriers to entry. Here’s an example. If I ask you to eat a flavorless gelatin, you’ll turn up your nose. But if I ask you to whiteboard a doubly linked list in order to qualify to eat that same dessert, you’ll eat it and say, you know, it’s actually pretty good, and people really should have to do a whiteboard exercise to earn it.
