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AnonTechie writes "In business, intelligence is always a critical element in any employee, because what we do is difficult and complex and the competitors are filled with extremely smart people. However, intelligence isn't the only important quality. Being effective in a company also means working hard, being reliable, and being an excellent member of the team. Companies where people with diverse backgrounds and work styles can succeed have significant advantages in recruiting and retaining top talent over those that don't."
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Deal With the Brilliant Jerks You Work With
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday February 28 2014, @08:40AM
My basic view on "Brilliant Jerks" is that the primary effect of their jerkiness is to mask their lack of brilliance. There's this idea floating around of "He has no social skills, but he can write code. He must be one of those crazy genius types I keep hearing about that made Silicon Valley what it is today." But the vast majority of the truly smart people actually *do* have social skills, and it makes a big difference.
Consider, for instance, what wouldn't have happened if Dennis Ritchie had been a jerk rather than the humble and friendly guy he was. Chances are, he wouldn't have buddied up with Ken Thompson on a project that they were basically doing for the fun of it that turned into Unix. And then he wouldn't have been able to get Brian Kernighan involved in creating what is arguably the most influential programming language of all time.
Every task is easy if somebody else is doing it.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by webcommando on Friday February 28 2014, @09:26AM
"There's this idea floating around of "He has no social skills, but he can write code. He must be one of those crazy genius types I keep hearing about that made Silicon Valley what it is today." But the vast majority of the truly smart people actually *do* have social skills, and it makes a big difference."
Anecdote time: I have the distinct pleasure of working in an industry--medical devices--that requires deep domain knowledge, attention to detail, and ability to truly collaborate to get something done. Everyone of the excellent people I work with are really good team players and conscientious. Even the ones who are rough around the edges take input well and try to evolve.
Of course, we are resource strapped and leverage partners who work and hire to the Silicon Valley ideals. We think they can move "faster" and are "leaner". When I get into it, the brilliance is skin deep--cool looking ideas, average execution by cutting corners, and often a team who we have to educate about their own customer's needs (not kidding on that). Of course the product is always "ready" (look a time to market savings!) but takes a year with a huge investment of our team's time to make it safe for using in a real clinical environment. I'll take my ordinary team over companies leveraging "brilliant jerks".
(obviously, I've also worked with start-ups and smaller companies that are just as passionate and knowledgeable as my team and are a joy to work with.)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2014, @11:31AM
We have a brilliant Jerk here. What his code does is not brilliant, but the way he obfuscates it is. Encryption, nonsensical variable names, NO comments whatsoever, etc. He can walk around being a condescending jerk because he's not trying to be promoted, he's just saving up for retirement.
But its hard to decide whether or not to hate him or like him for that, because the company is willing to let him have them by the balls because they take penny-pinching to the extreme. From the company's perspective, it would cost too much money to make him rewrite and roll out his code while his existing code already works.
It should be mentioned in passing that my employer is the type of company to apply band-aid fix on top of band-aid fix on top of band-aid fix because short-term profits are more important than long-term stability.
-- Ethanol-fueled
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday February 28 2014, @12:40PM
It should be mentioned in passing that my employer is the type of company to apply band-aid fix on top of band-aid fix on top of band-aid fix because short-term profits are more important than long-term stability.
What other kind of company is there these days?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2014, @05:30PM
"My basic view on "Brilliant Jerks" is that the primary effect of their jerkiness is to mask their lack of brilliance. There's this idea floating around of "He has no social skills, but he can write code. He must be one of those crazy genius types I keep hearing about that made Silicon Valley what it is today." But the vast majority of the truly smart people actually *do* have social skills, and it makes a big difference."
How about humans are complex and their behavior is complex, and that generalizations rarely apply to everyone?