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Comment by bugglebeetle | Hacker News Reader

Right? If you can learn how to get good at Elden Ring from a fan wiki and a couple YouTube videos, I’m pretty sure you can learn how to do most office jobs with basic documentation and some video chats…

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Funny thing is, promotions in your career are very rarely about your pure skill at something. Hard pill to swallow for the Just Log On And Deliver crowd but it's more like (skill * how much your boss likes you * social connections in the team where others vouch for you).

Which some of us are way better at making online text-only relationships than face-to-face ones, which is how my career accelerated, and where most of my closest and longest lasting relationships in life have come from.

I wonder if there might be some asymmetry in how others perceived those online-only relationships? I think it's probably true that some manager might feel a person is more "the right one for this post" simply because they've had in person interactions, for example. Whilst those who, perhaps, find online or IRL engagements to have a similar worth might not perceive that there is an asymmetry for others.

Find you niche and none of that matters, I imagine.

Would it not be better if promotions were made on the basis of skill and accomplishments instead of looks/talks like/kisses the ass of the boss? You’re essentially defending an arcane social hierarchy where you have to sycophantically jockey for your position. If remote work demolishes even a small part of that, all the better.

But I also got a promotion last year that nearly doubled my pay by just logging on and delivering, so I admit to being a little biased.

You're thinking of the worst case. The reality is, in a large company, every promotion probably has 2+ people who have the skills and accomplishments. The determining factor ends up being if your boss likes you/wants to work more closely with you.

Yes, there are terrible managers and nepotism type environments, but on par most bosses wants to look good to higher ups which means promoting skills which helps the boss look good. Exactly what happened in your case.

Not just promotions, but jobs. After my second job, every job I've ever had I got because I knew someone who liked working with me and could vouch for my ability. I've never taken a coding test as part of a job interview. I did have to take one on the job once when a new manager came in. I left that job fairly soon after, as I found the whole process and attitude around it to be insulting.

> most bosses wants to look good to higher ups which means promoting skills which helps the boss look good.

…which is how you end up with stagnant cultures like Meta and Google, who just sit around and wait for their lunch to get ate by their competitors. If you instead reward delivering the goods in whatever context, you don’t run into these problems! The company should maximize for being a successful business, not stroking its managers egos.

On face value you'd think that but you also remember the rest of the team and the manager also has to spend hundreds of hours a year with that person so it's way easier if you like them and enjoy that time rather than someone mega skilled who causes you stress and you don't like being around.

Video Games are environments that are designed to teach you how to master them. That includes very hard video games; I don’t feel like video games are a good point of reference. YouTube is also pretty good at teaching you how to change the headlights on your car, but it’s not so good at teaching you a foreign language. I’m not sure where a basic office job like programming falls on that continuum.

>Video Games are environments that are designed to teach you how to master them

…and any decent workplace should be the same.

>YouTube is also pretty good at teaching you how to change the headlights on your car, but it’s not so good at teaching you a foreign language.

YouTube is fantastic at this and used by language-learners all over the world.

> Video Games are environments that are designed to teach you how to master them

Pretty much every workplace?

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