3 ms·

The Ying-Yang of CEOs and Engineers

12 points by freework 14y ago

vitno 14y ago
I know several charismatic "type-A" personality people who are amazing programmers...flat out amazing. Just because you have social skills doesn't mean that you automatically suck at programming. These are extreme over generalizations and don't actually correlate with reality. It seemed in many ways to me that this article was written in a rather bitter mood. The core of the article is really summed up with this sentence: Despite my awkwardness at the interview, I still was hired. But after 4 months, it had become obvious that I wasn't a cultural fit and my employment was terminated.
- jonny_eh 14y ago
  There's that and the typos. He clearly just needed to get something off his chest. A great counter-example is Bill Gates. He's obviously a great business guy and I'm told was a great programmer. I still enjoyed reading it though. I especially like the Pinky and the Brain analogy. It made me think that Steve Wozniak was Brain and Steve Jobs was Pinky.
- vm 14y ago
  "The best business guys are dumb as hell" -- this generalization in particular is egregious. It's easy to dismiss something that you don't understand. This article may have been the least thoughtful one I read on HN this year.
  - freework 14y ago
    I didn't mean that as an insult at all. I'm not dismissing business people at all. Heck, if I could trade my computer skills for charisma sills, I'd do it in a heartbeat. As the "business guy" in a startup, your job is to be enthusiastic and positive so you can get investor money. Intelligence only gets in the way of that. The more you understad, the more you have to worry about. To the people saying "I know lots of Type-A programmers who are great programmers", well I disagree. I've never worked with a programmer who was great and charismatic. A good musician becomes his instrument. A good artist becomes his paint and paintbrush. A great programmer becomes his computer.
diego 14y ago
This is one of the most naive articles I've seen on HN. And that's saying a lot. "CEO: Dumb as hell / Compulsive Liar Engineer: Compulsively Honest / Genius" Have you heard of Bill Gates? Eric Schmidt? Is Mark Zuckerberg dumb as hell? Flagged.
alexschiff 14y ago
I'm a CEO and the part that I take issue with is not any of the bad characterizations of CEOs (my engineers are absolutely 10x smarter than me) but the insinuation that all engineers need to be "Type Bs" that don't know how to talk to people. My co-founder is probably the best engineer I know and he brought in one of our biggest investments because he's capable of communicating our vision as a company and talking to people.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

12 points by freework 14y ago

vitno 14y ago

I know several charismatic "type-A" personality people who are amazing programmers...flat out amazing. Just because you have social skills doesn't mean that you automatically suck at programming. These are extreme over generalizations and don't actually correlate with reality. It seemed in many ways to me that this article was written in a rather bitter mood. The core of the article is really summed up with this sentence: Despite my awkwardness at the interview, I still was hired. But after 4 months, it had become obvious that I wasn't a cultural fit and my employment was terminated.

jonny_eh 14y ago
There's that and the typos. He clearly just needed to get something off his chest. A great counter-example is Bill Gates. He's obviously a great business guy and I'm told was a great programmer. I still enjoyed reading it though. I especially like the Pinky and the Brain analogy. It made me think that Steve Wozniak was Brain and Steve Jobs was Pinky.
vm 14y ago
"The best business guys are dumb as hell" -- this generalization in particular is egregious. It's easy to dismiss something that you don't understand. This article may have been the least thoughtful one I read on HN this year.
- freework 14y ago
  I didn't mean that as an insult at all. I'm not dismissing business people at all. Heck, if I could trade my computer skills for charisma sills, I'd do it in a heartbeat. As the "business guy" in a startup, your job is to be enthusiastic and positive so you can get investor money. Intelligence only gets in the way of that. The more you understad, the more you have to worry about. To the people saying "I know lots of Type-A programmers who are great programmers", well I disagree. I've never worked with a programmer who was great and charismatic. A good musician becomes his instrument. A good artist becomes his paint and paintbrush. A great programmer becomes his computer.

diego 14y ago

This is one of the most naive articles I've seen on HN. And that's saying a lot. "CEO: Dumb as hell / Compulsive Liar Engineer: Compulsively Honest / Genius" Have you heard of Bill Gates? Eric Schmidt? Is Mark Zuckerberg dumb as hell? Flagged.

alexschiff 14y ago

I'm a CEO and the part that I take issue with is not any of the bad characterizations of CEOs (my engineers are absolutely 10x smarter than me) but the insinuation that all engineers need to be "Type Bs" that don't know how to talk to people. My co-founder is probably the best engineer I know and he brought in one of our biggest investments because he's capable of communicating our vision as a company and talking to people.

deleted 14y ago

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