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0 pointsgaius17y ago0 comments

It's also the case that people don't just come into work, do the work, and go. People want to enjoy their interactions with their colleagues, and there's economic value in that: it reduces staff turnover, people stay in jobs they're not wild about if they've made friends there. It's in a company's interest to hire people who can a) do the work (obviously) and b) have an interesting story to tell on Monday morning about what they did at the weekend. Long term, that's more valuable than someone who has great technical skills but can't bond with the team or interact with anyone.

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lsc17y ago· 2 in thread

'people skills' are highly dependent on what people you wish to get along with. the 'socially skilled' marketing guy with good hair? ever notice how the more technical people on your team want to murder that guy? Many of us prefer to hang out with people who stare at their shoes while explaining what a forrier transform is over that asshole with the good hair who is talking about how cool his yoga weekend was (or whatever the cool people are doing these days)

So yeah, while you want people who are socially compatible to work together, keep in mind that managers and technical people have very different preferences when it comes to choosing friends.

gaiusOP17y ago

No-one wants to hang out with the people who just stare at their shoes. However, those who spend their weekends at the Renaissance Faire or building a robot in their garage do have a story to tell. Do you see the difference?

Social skills are relative, not absolute. There is a HUGE difference between "being a geek" and "being boring".

lsc17y ago

nobody? really? some of my best friends are the shy stare-at-your-shoes types.

Boring, again, is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I find extroverts in general to be a little irritating. Frankly, I'd rather have you try to explain to me what a fourier transform is than tell me how great your ren faire experience was.

the worst are those guys who won't shut up about contrails or jesus or organic food or the democrats or the republicans or corn syrup or whatever. I know we all believe weird shit. Hell, I do too. I don't mind hearing a little about it, but it gets boring pretty fast if that's what you are really into.

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