Aye, I hear you. I was giving it more thought over the last few days having written the above comment, and I realised that what happens in tech interviews is that I switch my mode of thinking.

Under normal circumstances, I sit and problem solve, thinking only of the issue at hand, branching out and following leads and so on.

Under interview circumstances, I instead try to anticipate what the person scrutinising me wants to see, and try to like, game an ungameable situation, which blocks my natural problem solving thinking.

I have noticed that when I'm in a position of subordination, I do worse creatively. This isn't to say I can't work as employee, but rather in specific situations, such as "person knows x and is just watching me try to do x", I enter this reactive thought mode.

Conversely, when I am in a superordinate position, I find myself much more creative than my baseline, thinking clearly and well.

I don't know how to handle this for interviews.