A few decades ago, I felt frustrated in college because the library had been remodeled to emphasized "shared workspaces." Some of us would wander around campus

A few decades ago, I felt frustrated in college because the library had been remodeled to emphasized "shared workspaces." Some of us would wander around campus looking for open classrooms for the evening, to get a little peace and quiet. We weren't "non-people" people, by the way. We just studied and performed a hell of a lot better without constant distraction -- even distraction "in the background". Funny that often, those same people formed a good part of the top rank in my classes. I get out of school, to find workplaces pushing the same damned thing. Well, flash forward some decades, and the popular press is finally catching on that such "shared workspaces" are often a nightmare -- particularly for high performers. So now, the same yutzes are telling us that "people" people are the key to success. "Be more people!" (TM) I actually get along better with most people than, well, most people. Red necks to stereotypical gays, and everything in between. In each place I've worked, I've ended up getting to know and collaborating with people throughout the organization. BIG organizations. Why? In good part, because I identify and other people apparently identify in me people who "get things done." And not in the broke-ass way of the serial multi/many/manifold tasker. Rather, expeditiously but carefully: What's the most right we can do without unduly straining the resources at hand. So: "People" people. I've worked with them. A subset are truly good. The majority are, to some degree... "working their lines" and "working the system." Their value, to the extent it exists, lies in getting other people to do things. In the corporate world, too often this starts coming too close to being "manipulators." Keep your "people" people. Park them in some cubes, hopefully out of my way. I was going to add another sentence, but I guess that's about the best I can hope for.