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The author could politely decline these invitations, citing personal reasons, while asserting that he appreciates being invited, but rather seems to take a confrontational approach. Lack of social grace, rather than introversion, seems to be his problem.
Meeting suck because they have a diminishing return that is hard to see. Being on the same page is awesome, spitting out "ideas" and "visions" for the company are rarely productive. Save that for going out to drinks after work.
I've never judged the productivity of a group session by the number of ideas produced. I think that's a terrible measure. I judge it by the quality of the few that the group settles on by the end. And in my experience, group sessions produce ideas of a quality that I could not have produced by myself. When working with good people, we riff off each other and fill in the gaps in each other's ideas that we wouldn't have even realized were there if we were working on our own.
It's very hard to spot your own weaknesses. I'm convinced that feedback is great and that getting out of your own head is great, and a good meeting can deliver that. Not always, of course. I'm a programmer. I like my me time, and I'm definitely not arguing for group work all or even close to most of the time. But I'm definitely a better person for the trips I take away from my shell.
There was a TED talk linked here on HN a while back, called "where good ideas come from" [1]. It completely disagrees with this article, but with facts instead of generalizations.
[1]: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_com...
"It has consistently been found that people produce more ideas when working alone as compared to when working in a group. Yet, people generally believe that group brainstorming is more effective than individual brainstorming. Further, group members are more satisfied with their performance than individuals, whereas they have generated fewer ideas." I've never judged the productivity of a group session by the number o…
> I invite you to make a New Year’s resolution: Refrain from organizing stuff. Don’t plan parties or outings... All in the name of productivity! If the author feels parties are taking too much of his time away from work, can't he just not attend? No need to try and ruin everyone else's fun just because he wants to be miserable.
That's just the point. He's miserable when people _force_ him into social situations that serve no purpose other than socializing. He's not miserable when he's alone. I'm not sure why this is so hard to grasp for a lot of people.
Also, I happen to know the author to some small degree and I'm pretty sure his tongue is somewhat in cheek...
I think he misunderstands the purpose of meetings, or maybe I'm just cynical. Meetings are about showing social status. It's a way of establishing your control over others' time. It's not "Let's get together and be awesome." It's usually a show of either dominance, or deference (to a higher-status entity; you are deferring by committing your reports' time). Obviously, a few meetings have a real purpose, but most don'…