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> In a world where 90% of communications is non-verbal imagine what is lost on conference calls. On the flipside, a significant percentage of people who work i
by kijin 14y ago
> In a world where 90% of communications is non-verbal imagine what is lost on conference calls.
On the flipside, a significant percentage of people who work in the tech sector seem to be introverted, or sometimes even autistic (although it is hard to draw a clear distinction between the two). Many of them don't really "get" non-verbal communication anyway, even in a face-to-face setting. Even if they do, non-verbal communication tends to be much less efficient for these people. As a result, I doubt that relying exclusively on verbal communication results in such a large loss as the author describes.
> The culture is forged through office parties, poker, paintball or film nights. And slowly, over the years, those crazy stories about Danny passed out in the company bathroom after the Summer party get replaced by weddings, births and family picnics. We become more than dispassionate colleagues – we’ve been in the trenches together and survived.
And this is exactly the kind of office culture that introverted and/or autistic techies tend to hate, or even positively despise. Office parties? Boring. Danny's bathroom episode? Idle chitchat. Paintball? No, I'd rather go home early and play my favorite FPS game. And I thought I'd be able to avoid those stupid corporate events if I worked for a lean startup! No thanks.
In short, I think that the author is approaching the topic of distributed teams from a rather biased point of view, namely, the viewpoint of a corporate executive who is proud of his "social skillz" and expects everyone else to enjoy the pointless parties he throws.
- barry-cotter 14y agoOn the flipside, a significant percentage of people who work in the tech sector seem to be introverted, or sometimes even autistic (alth:ough it bis hard to draw a clear distinction between the two). Introverts are not all autistic and autists are not all introverts. I'm not even aware of any research on the correlation between the two. Plenty of autistic people must be by nature extroverted; extroverts are at the very least 40% of the population. If I was introverted I would be pissed off by your post; you're comparing a large social disability with a disinclination for small talk and glad handing. As an actual Asperger's person I am pissed off to be lumped in with introverts automatically. Introversion is not a disorder and neither is it misanthropy. If you don't want to go to the office party, don't. A pattern of similar decisions can damage a career. Deal with it; we're social animals.
- RyanZAG 14y agoDeal with it; we're social animals. This makes a nice punchline for your joke, but the thing is -- we no longer have as much in common with a tiger in the jungle as we once did. While a social animal may want to spend time in-fighting in their pack to increase their status by winning petty fights and publicly rutting with the most eligible female, some small percentage of humanity has gained a touch of wisdom and tries to accomplish goals for other reasons. Don't lump everyone into your 'social animals' tirade. People like the Dalai Lama have shown that you truly can rise above the petty politics.
- philwelch 14y agoThe Dalai Lama!?
- kijin 14y ago> Introverts are not all autistic and autists are not all introverts. I never said that they were. Whether there is a medically significant difference between introverted neurotypicals and "actual" autistic people is irrelevant to the point that I was trying to make. Since a lot of people who work in IT seem to be either unwilling or unable (it doesn't matter which) to engage effectively in non-verbal communication, the loss of non-verbal communication will have a smaller impact on productivity than the author claims it does. As another actual Asperger's person, I am pissed off that you took the discussion off-topic on a technicality.