Esteban Küber 1d ago

For any project that relies on collaboration, it doesn't matter how smart an individual is if they drive other people away. The underlying technical points might have a lot of merit, but I would not want to use a tool that would have me interact with people like that that would berate me for filing a bug. I would certainly not want to contribute code to such a project.

I am amazed how many people confuse "being a dick" with "having a personality". I hate the "asshole genius" trope because all it's done is convince assholes that they are geniuses, and non-geniuses to think the way to appear smart is to be an asshole.

If you can't communicate effectively ("play well with others"), you're not nearly as smart as you think you are. Smart people know how to get shit done, and the only way to get shit done at a scale beyond what any given human can do on their own is collaboration. And no one wants to collaborate with an asshole.

Show threadJon1d ago

@ekuber I used to run an industry standards group. One of the participants was very smart, and exceedingly arrogant. He told people to their face they were idiots if they disagreed with him.

Eventually I asked his management to remove him from the standards activity, because whatever his contributions, they were lost in the friction and anger he caused.

Show threadEsteban Küber 1d ago
@oddhack It's important to act to remediate the situation, because otherwise you end up driving away everyone else that could have equal or greater contributions that don't have any desire to deal with that bullshit. It's the "paradox of tolerance" or the "Nazi bar" problem, at a less extreme level.
Show threadJon

@ekuber yeah, after the third person complained about this, it was apparent it wasn't just my opinion and he wasn't just an asshole, he was a destructive asshole. As the standard group chair I had no actual power over his employer, but thankfully, they took the problem seriously (and I'm sure they had plenty of experience internally with this as well).

These days the employer has become one of the "AI" megacorps and I really wonder if they would be this responsible, any more.

Jun 22 at 3:58amWeb
Show threadderptron1d ago
@oddhack @ekuber Everyone has decided that the person who keeps prickling about stuff nobody cares about can be replaced with an ass kissing robot that sure, does a shitty job but does it with a smile.