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One would think that being smart should be an asset when playing politics, though.
by kryptiskt 7y ago
One would think that being smart should be an asset when playing politics, though.
- olau 7y agoSmart people I know tend to make their own decisions, including whether to participate in specific games or not.
- mdgrech23 7y agoPlaying politics might be to abstract of a term. How about if someone in a position of power above you likes you or not. If say your bosses boss thinks your amazing then they can pull you up. Keep in mind though this big boss might only want to pull you up to undermine your current boss. that's the political part.
- dougmwne 7y agoI think you really illustrate GP's point in a fantastic way. Let's define "smart" as the kind of smarts that would be in abundance on HN: Technical smarts, rapid learning smarts, knowledge smarts, creative smarts, idea smarts. A smart person might be good at school and individual contribuitorship, and so believe that they should naturally be good at political games as well. But truly, politics takes a whole other set of smarts and the things that make you an excellent IC do not much overlap with things that make you good at the political game: charisma, selling, risk-taking, deep emotional intelligence, extroversion, strategic intuition, sociopathy, commanding presence. Many smart engineers can't even see see that the game is being played or they realize it long after the match has been won. They are not the players, but the pieces on the board.
- dev_hacker 7y agoThis is so true and sad. Often the smartest people at a company are literally just being moved about by the business people. They literally can't see the real game above them.
- Data_Junkie 7y agoThat's because they are smart enough to know better. It is dumb people who play games with the lives of others, it is the fool who loves power.
- dougmwne 7y agoTypically not in my experience. Smart technical folks are subjected to plenty of suffering at the hands of leadership. The ones "smart enough to know better" find a way to insulate their livelihoods from capricious decision makers by either learning how to play the game or finding a way not to play (consulting or maybe creating their own product). And I don't think it's accurate either to say that only fools love power. The need for power and status is deeply rooted in our evolution and psyche. To go back to Aristotle, man is the political animal.
- Data_Junkie 7y agoVery accurate to say the love of power makes a fool. A fool is just closer to an animal than a "wise" man. Power over another is just selfish, as love, or the care of more than yourself is altruistic. By smart enough to know better I meant they aren't the ones perpetuating the games, not that they are not suffering from the games. You flipped it backwards.
- rasz 7y agoPolitics require social skills, being smart is detrimental because it lets you see thru all the bullshit.
- rimliu 7y agoHow is that detrimental in politics?
- unlinked_dll 7y agoIf you see the bullshit but don't deal with it, that doesn't make you smart. It makes you very, very stupid.
- AstralStorm 7y agoDealing with politics in an advantageous way takes serious time and practice. You might be well behind the curve vs professionals.
- ikeyany 7y agoIf you were smart, wouldn't you know how to optimally deal with bullshit?
- heavenlyblue 7y agoThis takes a whole different set of skills against e.g being good at programming. For example, how do you react to inherently unfair situations, someone taking advantage of someone else? If you start picking on people good politicians will quickly “plausibility deniability” you out of the equation. It’s much easier to accept (with a bit of anger) that you made a mistake in your program that bring defaced due to your “judgement being clouded by anger”. You may be smart enough to even understand what you have to do, but it will take practice to do it well even if you understand it conceptually.
- ikeyany 7y agoJust because you're a good programmer doesn't mean you're smart.