At the risk of sounding an ass-kisser, this is good, but not as good as PG's Why Nerds are Unpopular ( http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraha

At the risk of sounding an ass-kisser, this is good, but not as good as PG's Why Nerds are Unpopular ( http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html ) I tend to think of sociability more in terms of the opportunity cost of Chinese-Walling blackboxed components. The cost of the time it takes to learn the muddled API of mores is the time that could be spent learning those muddled API's we actually find fascinating. It is recursively self-reinforcing as well. An hour spent in hacking Smalltalk will get you more immediate and interesting (to us) results than an hour rehearsing small talk. Which choice will look more appealing the next time? Almost inevitably you will focus on those things that you're already good at, that provide tangible rewards.