Geeks Prefer Competence To Niceness 300
Death Metal writes "While everyone would like to work for a nice person who is always right, IT pros will prefer a jerk who is always right over a nice person who is always wrong. Wrong creates unnecessary work, impossible situations and major failures. Wrong is evil, and it must be defeated. Capacity for technical reasoning trumps all other professional factors, period."
Just IT people? (Score:5, Interesting)
Best quote (Score:5, Interesting)
IT pros are sensitive to logic -- that's what you pay them for. When things don't add up, they are prone to express their opinions on the matter, and the level of response will be proportional to the absurdity of the event.
If only I could get my current manager to understand that. Perhaps then he'd understand why our department reacts the way it does to policies handed down from the parent organization.
I thought the article was basically ego-stroking but at the same time, most of it was spot-on. Why is it that so many writers understand this stuff, while so many IT management organizations do not?
Re:Geeks Prefer Competence To Niceness (Score:5, Interesting)
Can't happen (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a situation that usually can't happen. The reason is that jerks are very often wrong, but, because of their personality type, they won't admit it. Even if a nice guy is wrong, he will more often than not own up to his mistakes instead of charging blindly ahead.
And I don't think being a nice guy and being competent is some rare thing. In my experience, people who are extremely competent have nothing to prove and are therefore pretty easygoing. The jerks are usually the ones who don't know shit but want to make everyone think they do. They're the ones who kiss their superiors' asses and have them believing they know what they're doing. They also belittle their underlings, who are often the ones who actually do the work.
I couldn't agree more! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Geeks Prefer Competence To Niceness (Score:5, Interesting)
%100 percent our fault as geeks.
Geeks give away their power. We work for corporations or consult for them when they are not interested in any of our goals or values. Geeks are always bending over, spreading their ass cheeks and whining about getting fucked.
They have superior intelligence (generally) but shy away from running things or accepting authority.
What geeks generally don't get is that when you throw up your hands at a people/leadership oriented task you look as stupid as the people you (rightfully)deride for throwing up their hands at the slightest computer issue. When you back off from business tasks and say "I don't do that I'm a techie" you look as silly as a person who has an Outlook problem and says "I'm not a techie I don't do that"
How many IT departments in non IT companies can actually say that they are treated like a part of the business and not just like an irritating expense.
Best manager I ever had (Score:1, Interesting)
The article raises some very good points. It brings to mind the best manager I ever had. Now, when I say "best", that's not to say I liked him; rather, I literally came a coin-flip away from quitting shortly after I started working with him. He could really piss people off. Still, he knew how to manage people, and did a lot to clean up a real mess we had due to the previous "nice" manager. Contrary to what the article says, he was not technical. He knew nothing about programming, and not too much about computers; but he knew whose answers to trust, and he knew to give credit where it was due. During his time managing the team, I saw certain team members go from lazy, do-as-little-as-possible slackers to active, motivated leaders. It was really remarkable.
Re:I would take (Score:4, Interesting)
Wait: If the nice person is always wrong, why not enjoy working with them while doing the opposite of whatever they do? If someone is occasionally wrong, you have to look carefully at everything they do to find the wrong stuff.
Re:Just IT people? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Geeks prefer easy women (Score:3, Interesting)
As a very geek friendly woman that I knew in the past said "I am easy, but I am really picky"
-Steve
Re:Geeks Prefer Competence To Niceness (Score:5, Interesting)
If they wish to spend my 8 hours on futile, dead end projects then so be it.
I couldn't disagree more. I enjoy my job- I get personal satisfaction out of what I do. I'm proud of what I do.
I don't think I could live with myself knowing that I spent 9 hours on something completely useless and wrong. Even if the job is difficult or unpleasant, it's still important for me to know that it is worthwhile in some way.
I've worked with one or two people with your viewpoint (would count blades of grass all day as long as they were getting paid). It's a viewpoint that is utterly alien to me. Does it affect your personal relationships, too, or are you able to compartmentalize so well that you're two different people each day?
-b
Re:I would take (Score:3, Interesting)
The belief that running a business is synonymous with having a good product or providing a decent service is the great flaw in capitalism.
They are correlated, but not directly. There are many variables that affect a good business. If a business person is good at business, but isn't all that great at serving the core product, or knows enough about serving the core product to hire up from his/her own talents, then they ought to learn how to recognize the difference between change for the sake of change and change for the sake of improved quality, efficiency, or a broader market.
The broken window fallacy is a great example of how the free market will reward short-sighted and destructive strategies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window#Differing_interpretations [wikipedia.org]