24 ms·

Can anyone elaborate on what "Be a member of the prevailing tribe" means? Does that mean technology stack, culture, political leanings?

smallerfish 5y ago
Contrarians and lone wolves can sometimes get promoted if they're truly brilliant, but otherwise will get passed over in favor of people who are more "engaged". If you're contrarian enough, leave the company and start your own, or find a company that fits your way of thinking. No sense in pushing rocks uphill.
rtikulit 5y ago
Factors 2-4 are meant to be social. Anything functional is covered in 1. I'm not in anyone's tribe and so I had to learn to not exhibit tribal signifiers at work, which I think gets me half a point?
- gkop 5y ago
  “I'm not in anyone's tribe” is a tribal signifier :p
- shard 5y ago
  I'm not sure it's possible to not be in anyone's tribe. People are automatically in the same tribe as others in terms of age, income, social class, gender, race, nationality, education, religious and political affiliations, and not all of these can be hidden.
  - rtikulit 5y ago
    In my model, "tribal membership" is associated to a subconscious response we have to others when we recognize "sameness" at some level, and we subconsciously lower our social transaction cost expectations with respect to them. This is very closely related to "trust", which is largely a belief, towards a person, that we can predict their behaviour in a variety of risk situations, and it will be aligned to our own interests. It covers a lot that other commenters have mentioned. So with respect to the properties you've listed, it is rare for me to find someone where there's a mutual recognition of "sameness".
wcunning 5y ago
I would argue that it would cover most of those, but even possibly (in a bygone era) going to the same church as your boss, being part of the same country club, golfing with the right people on the weekends, etc.
Wiseacre 5y ago
Fit in with the company culture, assuming it is healthy.
MobiusHorizons 5y ago
I understood it to mean any divisive issue where people behaved tribally. So any of the examples you gave might be fall into that category for a given employer. Another important one is company politics.

smallerfish 5y ago

Contrarians and lone wolves can sometimes get promoted if they're truly brilliant, but otherwise will get passed over in favor of people who are more "engaged". If you're contrarian enough, leave the company and start your own, or find a company that fits your way of thinking. No sense in pushing rocks uphill.

rtikulit 5y ago

Factors 2-4 are meant to be social. Anything functional is covered in 1. I'm not in anyone's tribe and so I had to learn to not exhibit tribal signifiers at work, which I think gets me half a point?

gkop 5y ago
“I'm not in anyone's tribe” is a tribal signifier :p
shard 5y ago
I'm not sure it's possible to not be in anyone's tribe. People are automatically in the same tribe as others in terms of age, income, social class, gender, race, nationality, education, religious and political affiliations, and not all of these can be hidden.
- rtikulit 5y ago
  In my model, "tribal membership" is associated to a subconscious response we have to others when we recognize "sameness" at some level, and we subconsciously lower our social transaction cost expectations with respect to them. This is very closely related to "trust", which is largely a belief, towards a person, that we can predict their behaviour in a variety of risk situations, and it will be aligned to our own interests. It covers a lot that other commenters have mentioned. So with respect to the properties you've listed, it is rare for me to find someone where there's a mutual recognition of "sameness".

wcunning 5y ago

I would argue that it would cover most of those, but even possibly (in a bygone era) going to the same church as your boss, being part of the same country club, golfing with the right people on the weekends, etc.

Wiseacre 5y ago

Fit in with the company culture, assuming it is healthy.

MobiusHorizons 5y ago

I understood it to mean any divisive issue where people behaved tribally. So any of the examples you gave might be fall into that category for a given employer. Another important one is company politics.