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Comment by headsclouds | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me (the concept, not the code which I'm not competent to comment on).

Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story.

I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability. Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in.

Disclaimer: I was super-shy when I was younger, so I know what I'm talking about. I never went to these kinds of lengths to avoid talking to people though, this is crazy.

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You're not acknowledging some of the political realities of the work place that make such silliness necessary.

At my last job the IT guy, who had at some point been frightened by soap and had since managed to evade it in every form, would come and stand in front of my desk for as long as it took for me to acknowledge him. He could not be out-waited.

Thing is, he got his feeling tremendously hurt if you told him you didn't have time to talk to him, you were busy, etc. And next time you needed a server provisioned or something you were in for a long wait.

So my officemate and I wrote a very similar tool to the OPs that would place a call to our desk phones so that we could get out of these situations.

Silly? Absolutely. But 100% necessary given the personalities involved.

>Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story.

> Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in.

obviously the world has become a much easier place for you ... and much harsher place to the people you've "learned to talk to".

Yes, thank you. Hiding behind silly web apps doesn't help anyone.

BUT, "telling people to fuck off" isn't much better. A polite "hey, I'm trying to get some stuff done, I'll be with you soon" is sufficient.

I thought it was clear that it was an exaggeration, perhaps it would be clearer if I had used quotes. A polite ”sorry man, I have things to do” will suffice.

I think you're all missing the point. Its purpose is not to be a commentary on/solution for programmer archetypes, it's just a technological proof of concept. A concept which uses said archetype as an example use case.

In my experience, that only works with a not very large percentage of the population. Others will ignore you as if you had said nothing until you're actually rude, which will create a bad atmosphere.

A few other commenters below had it right; this was mainly a toy app, but it did scratch the itch of more than one person I told about it, so why not code it up?

> Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me

Agreed!

> I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability.

I find the lack of non-verbal communication skills among techies their biggest disability. My non-programmer friends (musicians, doctors, retail, teachers, etc.) don't need to be told "fuck you" to figure out when they are bothering me.

Agreed, communication skills are important, trying to avoid communication with others about work-related topics, where they may need your input, is bound to get you labeled as "that guy" where people basically think you're a one-dimensional dweeb. Part of working within a team evnironment is learning the skill to handle some interruptions.

about work-related topics

What about other topics?

Agree with the sentiment. I work in a room full of developers on one side and admin staff on the other. The admin staff are talkative and have a laugh. The developers are deadly silent and bizarrely averse to a bit of pleasant chat. Even just letting on is difficult.

People should respect you're busy, but you don't need to use some API to manufacture an excuse to not talk to someone. How about a, "sorry mate I'm a bit busy at the mo, can you put it in an email and I'll get to it as soon as I can?"

You don't need to be a dick about it, and there's nothing at all wrong with being firm and polite with someone. If the other person trying to talk to you wants to be a dick about that, you are then well within your rights to call them out on it.

Someone will say this is naïve because office politics trump civility or some shit. I think that's a lazy excuse, much like the API.

Possessing communication skills doesn't mean that you want to talk with everyone at every moment of the day. Not only people with lack of verbal communication have use for fake phone calls... It can be used to get out of various awkward situations.

> Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you

> lack of verbal communication skills

I'm not seeing it...

That kind of post doesn't work as well when the text isn't green.

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