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Comment by cbp | Hacker News Reader

And since those qualities are so out of reach for techies they're looked down on.

I think everyone should be highly suspicious of charisma. Charisma is a skill, not a trait, and it's developed by spending a lifetime practicing on people that one thinks are largely beneath one's self.

Skill of kings.

If you were detached enough to think of it as a game, it might even be called a... game of thrones.

" that one thinks are largely beneath one's self."

Mind elaborating on that?

Charismatic people are naturally drawn towards those they can impress. The easiest people to impress are those they can best. Charismatics don't hang around people who overshadow them.

That's a pretty cynical point of view. I've met plenty of charismatic people who wouldn't think they're spending "a lifetime practicing on people that one thinks are largely beneath one's self". And then I've meant charismatic people who are full of themselves as well. Charisma and egotism don't go hand in hand ...

Don't confuse charisma with extroversion. Being an open, warm, inviting person is not the defining characteristic of those who others readily identify as "charismatic" rather than a "really nice guy". Charisma is first and foremost about impressing others with your charm, intelligence, wit, etc. The skilled ones hide their contempt and egotism well.

I think Charisma is a trait, not a skill. It is an aspect which just makes people "want to hear you". And that is extremely risky: Charismatic people can make everything sound good. They can hold the most dumb and unfounded position in an argument and still win, just because they are charismatic. And that is dangerous. One charismatic person can make for a meteoric rise of a company or he can destroy everything.

False: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Techies could easily game the system; but that's a boring game for boring people, and in the grand scheme of things does not matter. There are much more important things to spend time on.

Like cat picture projects.

Interesting how people think the OP story is real and many people mistakeningly think Steve Yegge quit Google (he just quit the project).

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2011/07/hacker-news-fires-st...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8

That seems like a bit of a stretch.

This is an interesting comment.

My visceral reaction was that it was a huge generalization, but when I think about it more, I do have a difficult time thinking of people that are both charismatic and tech-savvy. The obvious example is Jobs, but even he wasn't the "tech" guy in a sense, we always associate that with Woz or others.

I guess for a lot of people here Musk is maybe an example of it? Is there some left/right brain separation that keeps techies from being charistmatic, is it a historical, cultural thing?

Or is it just a stereotype after all? :) It seems like a fascinating topic, though.

> Is there some left/right brain separation that keeps techies from being charistmatic

Nah. It's just that most techies are too busy doing brain things to learn soft skills like how to interact with people.

— a guy who struggled with being pretty awkward in high school, worked hard at socializing for a few years, and now does very well with business meetings / networking / parties even though he'd prefer to be delivering code

P.S.: "So if intelligence in itself is not a factor in popularity, why are smart kids so consistently unpopular? The answer, I think, is that they don't really want to be popular."

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

my own charisma is inversely proportional to the hours I spend each day coding. more coding -> less charisma. so I don't think it is just a stereotype at all, but rather an emergent phenomenon of how we spend our time, and where our interests lead us.

There are plenty of techies with social skills.

'sama ! :)

It must suck to be a techy and have social skills because you'll get pegged as a business gal/guy even if you can hack with the best of em. Most people can't seem to handle the doublethink of two seemingly contradictory capabilities in one person. They need to find a simple job to reduce you to.

Most people just never saw one of them. People with really good social skills and really good hacking are rare unicorns. So, if people see one they get suspicious and start looking harder.

"Cannot be ... I NEVER met someone before who was like that. Let's poke around a bit more, I'm sure I'll find the flaw."

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