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Here's a snarky contrarian view: social skills matter more now because there is less meaningful production and creation occurring. When engineering consists of

Here's a snarky contrarian view: social skills matter more now because there is less meaningful production and creation occurring. When engineering consists of making CRUD apps and serving up ads, you're better off politicking to get a bigger piece of a not-so-expanding pie.

conceit 11y ago
> making CRUD apps and serving up ads It involves a lot of social engineering is all. To design an API is to offer a service. It's the service industry and it's possible thanks to a lot of production and creation.
pm90 11y ago
I think its a lot more complex than that. I agree that there are a lot of people who make their living making CRUD apps (and honestly, I think its a good thing if people can do it! Someone is paying for those CRUD apps which means there is a demand...). But...as the economy gets more automated and digitized and the population grows, you're success will be determined by how quick you are in recognizing opportunities (clients, projects etc.) and social networks seem to be the best way to get this information. So I would argue that its the advantage of this property of social networks which is what makes being social a valuable skill. Also, I see a lot of disdain over the term "being social" in the tech community: its not licking the boot of others, its as simple as being the one who initiates conversation. I cannot stress how important this simple skill is.
ArkyBeagle 11y ago
T'was ever thus. I've been moving down the organization for a long time. It's only bitten me twice, but both times it bit hard. But I sincerely believe it's the way to make a career that lasts. Er, at least you'll last. The "politics" way is much more fickle. And I think it probably takes longer to get good at this stuff than we want to think it does.
joe_the_user 11y ago
That's not really that different from the article, which is saying social skills matter because other skills are more easily automatable.

conceit 11y ago

> making CRUD apps and serving up ads It involves a lot of social engineering is all. To design an API is to offer a service. It's the service industry and it's possible thanks to a lot of production and creation.

pm90 11y ago

I think its a lot more complex than that. I agree that there are a lot of people who make their living making CRUD apps (and honestly, I think its a good thing if people can do it! Someone is paying for those CRUD apps which means there is a demand...). But...as the economy gets more automated and digitized and the population grows, you're success will be determined by how quick you are in recognizing opportunities (clients, projects etc.) and social networks seem to be the best way to get this information. So I would argue that its the advantage of this property of social networks which is what makes being social a valuable skill. Also, I see a lot of disdain over the term "being social" in the tech community: its not licking the boot of others, its as simple as being the one who initiates conversation. I cannot stress how important this simple skill is.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago

T'was ever thus. I've been moving down the organization for a long time. It's only bitten me twice, but both times it bit hard. But I sincerely believe it's the way to make a career that lasts. Er, at least you'll last. The "politics" way is much more fickle. And I think it probably takes longer to get good at this stuff than we want to think it does.

joe_the_user 11y ago

That's not really that different from the article, which is saying social skills matter because other skills are more easily automatable.