4 ms·

How do you spot a nonconformist? Check their Internet browser

25 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

rtl49 11y ago
I must commend Grant for his thoughtful analysis of the complex association between browser choice, conformity, and career success. He begins with an elegant proof establishing that a one-to-one mapping exists between those who elect to install web-browsing software, instead of using the default, and the nonconformist personality trait. Next he observes that the study's astute selection of subjects, call center employees, gives us confidence that the results can be generalized to many, and indeed all, professions. Lastly, Grant creates a coherent picture of the study and its implications by clearly identifying nonconformity as the causal factor in the subjects' improved performance as call center workers. Admirably, Grant breaks from the mainstream by avoiding the temptation to abuse p-values to support the association. In fact, he succeeds in establishing a direct causal relationship between browser choice, nonconformity, and career success without relying upon any statistical analysis whatsoever. In an age when we are all too weary of the misuses and abuses of statistics, it is refreshing to read an interpretation which so convincingly supports its thesis with a single figure. There can be little doubt going forward that nonconformity is a key ingredient for career success, and that this trait is strongly indicated by browser preference.
- thieving_magpie 11y ago
  Funny. I do want to point out that this article is just terribly written. It seems to be based more on this: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/people-who-use-firefox-or-chrome-are-better-employees/387781/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/people-w... That article tends to go a little more in depth. I do think it's interesting that they can make the correlation between retention rates at a call center (with average 45% annual turnover) and browser choice. Those going with chrome/firefox stayed 15% longer in their positions. How that gets turned into some cliched 'nonconformist' categorization, I don't know. It would seem pretty conformist to stay in your position longer rather than quit, but what do I know. "As correlations like “Chrome users are better employees” bob up from a sea of data, it’s important that they don’t start to generate the same rigid biases that Big Data is partially dampening—rejecting an applicant with the “wrong” browser would be silly."
benlower 11y ago
Well I guess I should add "Firefox user since 2004" to my resume then :)
- Hoasi 11y ago
  Yes, and don't forget to mention using Brave since early 2016, for good measure.
Theodores 11y ago
The idea that someone working in a call center is able to download their own browser is laughable. Where are these call centers where the high-turnover-staff are able to install whatever software they want? I wouldn't be at all surprised if some call center operatives were forced to use IE6 and I wouldn't be surprised if some call centers effectively forbid their staff from using the internet for anything beyond checking customer information on their intranet.
durandal1 11y ago
The clear non-comformist thing to do would be to write your own web browser. As with everything else in life, people uses consumption to establish identity - through choice of food, music, movies..and yes, even web browsers. But this is all facade, like the person who looks like a rock star, walks like a rock star, listen to music of rock stars, but himself has never touched an instrument. Instead, it's much more effective to judge people from their output. What kind of works do they produce? Do the have unique ways of solving problems? Do their works inspire you to think in new patterns? Maybe then you can spot the non-conformist.
mattnewport 11y ago
"Google's Chrome browser shortcut, Google Inc.'s new Web browser" - is this caption really from an article written in 2016?
dingo_bat 11y ago
Eh, this is just crap. I know many people who use IE just because they do not care about the browser. They use it occasionally to look something up and then move on and do the work they need to do. Also, staying in longer doesn't mean anything either. I leave at 4 pm and I still do more work than >80% of my coworkers. It may be that there is a correlation between productivity and browser choice, but I doubt that the causation is as simple as posited in TFA. Edit: it seems that the article says staying in a particular job longer and not staying in office longer during the day.
- louhike 11y ago
  I'm not sure he's saying they stayed later in the evening. I understood it as they longer at their job in the sense they changed their job after more months. But it is not that clear.
  - dingo_bat 11y ago
    I think you're right.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
MarcScott 11y ago
If running a non-default browser is a sign of career success, then running a non-default operating system must be a sign of even greater success. Of course running a non-default version of an operating system should probably increase success rates even more, then there's the windows manager and text editor you use, to include in the calculation. My back of a beer mat calculations indicate I should be sending reuseable rockets into space at about this time in my career. Checks bank balance Shit.
- pcote 11y ago
  I know what you mean. Sometimes, though, nonconformity can be done for practical reasons. It's not always about being different for the sake of challenging the status quo. My landlady ran into a problem with her Windows 8 machine. To fix it required sending it to a PC repair shop and spending the 80 bucks for them to look at it and get it back in working order. She ended up being without her machine for a few days. Then there's me. When Windows Update bricked my Windows 8 machine, I checked my options (and my bank balance). Couldn't afford the PC tech. So I grabbed a Linux Mint DVD I had handy, salvaged the files I wanted to keep, and replaced the operating system. I was without my machine for less than 24 hours. Sometimes, the "nonconformist" choice IS the path of least resistance.
  - bovermyer 11y ago
    Mm, but nonconformity also generally means answering more questions and researching more deeply into various subject matter. All of this causes cognitive load. And if you're spending all day every day tweaking your operating system, browser, IDE, or what-have-you, then you're choosing not to spend time on other problems. I'm not saying that's bad; just that it should be something to be aware of. It's why Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg had supremely boring wardrobes; one less thing to think about, one less thing to take time away from solving other problems.
    - pcote 11y ago
      Environment context switches can have cognitive load too. Going from Win 8 to Cygwin is like that. So is Win 8 to a Linux VM. That's probably one of the biggest reliefs of the Linux switch as the host OS. To work with a vagrant box or ssh into a cloud server actually requires LESS wrestling and tweaking with the host OS. The transition from one context to another is a lot smoother. So that's one less distraction when it comes to the actual projects I'm tackling.

25 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

rtl49 11y ago

I must commend Grant for his thoughtful analysis of the complex association between browser choice, conformity, and career success. He begins with an elegant proof establishing that a one-to-one mapping exists between those who elect to install web-browsing software, instead of using the default, and the nonconformist personality trait. Next he observes that the study's astute selection of subjects, call center employees, gives us confidence that the results can be generalized to many, and indeed all, professions. Lastly, Grant creates a coherent picture of the study and its implications by clearly identifying nonconformity as the causal factor in the subjects' improved performance as call center workers. Admirably, Grant breaks from the mainstream by avoiding the temptation to abuse p-values to support the association. In fact, he succeeds in establishing a direct causal relationship between browser choice, nonconformity, and career success without relying upon any statistical analysis whatsoever. In an age when we are all too weary of the misuses and abuses of statistics, it is refreshing to read an interpretation which so convincingly supports its thesis with a single figure. There can be little doubt going forward that nonconformity is a key ingredient for career success, and that this trait is strongly indicated by browser preference.

thieving_magpie 11y ago
Funny. I do want to point out that this article is just terribly written. It seems to be based more on this: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/people-who-use-firefox-or-chrome-are-better-employees/387781/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/people-w... That article tends to go a little more in depth. I do think it's interesting that they can make the correlation between retention rates at a call center (with average 45% annual turnover) and browser choice. Those going with chrome/firefox stayed 15% longer in their positions. How that gets turned into some cliched 'nonconformist' categorization, I don't know. It would seem pretty conformist to stay in your position longer rather than quit, but what do I know. "As correlations like “Chrome users are better employees” bob up from a sea of data, it’s important that they don’t start to generate the same rigid biases that Big Data is partially dampening—rejecting an applicant with the “wrong” browser would be silly."

benlower 11y ago

Well I guess I should add "Firefox user since 2004" to my resume then :)

Hoasi 11y ago
Yes, and don't forget to mention using Brave since early 2016, for good measure.

Theodores 11y ago

The idea that someone working in a call center is able to download their own browser is laughable. Where are these call centers where the high-turnover-staff are able to install whatever software they want? I wouldn't be at all surprised if some call center operatives were forced to use IE6 and I wouldn't be surprised if some call centers effectively forbid their staff from using the internet for anything beyond checking customer information on their intranet.

durandal1 11y ago

The clear non-comformist thing to do would be to write your own web browser. As with everything else in life, people uses consumption to establish identity - through choice of food, music, movies..and yes, even web browsers. But this is all facade, like the person who looks like a rock star, walks like a rock star, listen to music of rock stars, but himself has never touched an instrument. Instead, it's much more effective to judge people from their output. What kind of works do they produce? Do the have unique ways of solving problems? Do their works inspire you to think in new patterns? Maybe then you can spot the non-conformist.

mattnewport 11y ago

"Google's Chrome browser shortcut, Google Inc.'s new Web browser" - is this caption really from an article written in 2016?

dingo_bat 11y ago

Eh, this is just crap. I know many people who use IE just because they do not care about the browser. They use it occasionally to look something up and then move on and do the work they need to do. Also, staying in longer doesn't mean anything either. I leave at 4 pm and I still do more work than >80% of my coworkers. It may be that there is a correlation between productivity and browser choice, but I doubt that the causation is as simple as posited in TFA. Edit: it seems that the article says staying in a particular job longer and not staying in office longer during the day.

louhike 11y ago
I'm not sure he's saying they stayed later in the evening. I understood it as they longer at their job in the sense they changed their job after more months. But it is not that clear.
- dingo_bat 11y ago
  I think you're right.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

MarcScott 11y ago

If running a non-default browser is a sign of career success, then running a non-default operating system must be a sign of even greater success. Of course running a non-default version of an operating system should probably increase success rates even more, then there's the windows manager and text editor you use, to include in the calculation. My back of a beer mat calculations indicate I should be sending reuseable rockets into space at about this time in my career. Checks bank balance Shit.

pcote 11y ago
I know what you mean. Sometimes, though, nonconformity can be done for practical reasons. It's not always about being different for the sake of challenging the status quo. My landlady ran into a problem with her Windows 8 machine. To fix it required sending it to a PC repair shop and spending the 80 bucks for them to look at it and get it back in working order. She ended up being without her machine for a few days. Then there's me. When Windows Update bricked my Windows 8 machine, I checked my options (and my bank balance). Couldn't afford the PC tech. So I grabbed a Linux Mint DVD I had handy, salvaged the files I wanted to keep, and replaced the operating system. I was without my machine for less than 24 hours. Sometimes, the "nonconformist" choice IS the path of least resistance.
- bovermyer 11y ago
  Mm, but nonconformity also generally means answering more questions and researching more deeply into various subject matter. All of this causes cognitive load. And if you're spending all day every day tweaking your operating system, browser, IDE, or what-have-you, then you're choosing not to spend time on other problems. I'm not saying that's bad; just that it should be something to be aware of. It's why Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg had supremely boring wardrobes; one less thing to think about, one less thing to take time away from solving other problems.
  - pcote 11y ago
    Environment context switches can have cognitive load too. Going from Win 8 to Cygwin is like that. So is Win 8 to a Linux VM. That's probably one of the biggest reliefs of the Linux switch as the host OS. To work with a vagrant box or ssh into a cloud server actually requires LESS wrestling and tweaking with the host OS. The transition from one context to another is a lot smoother. So that's one less distraction when it comes to the actual projects I'm tackling.