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Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

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Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#131

Post by JoshTriplett »

smallnamespace wrote: post #57
JoshTriplett wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my experience, talented developers are usually intelligent enough that they can make up for their shortcoming in the social area by consciously adapting their behaviour. That's orthogonal to the issue mentioned in the article. For the purposes of "not being a jerk", it doesn't matter if that comes naturally or if you have to devote conscious effort to it; only the resulting behavior matters. > Brilliant jerks ar…

OTOH, you can make a pretty strong argument that for, say, MS, Oracle, or Apple, it's precisely the 'jerk-y' qualities of their founders and CEOs that led to their success today. Say what you like about MS's business practices during the 90s, but I think the history shows that a large reason they were able to continue their dominance was because of the unfair and frankly anticompetitive practices that they embraced b…

> I think the history shows that a large reason they were able to continue their dominance was because of the unfair and frankly anticompetitive practices that they embraced back then

While there might be a correlation, I don't think you can entirely extrapolate between "ruthless business practices" and "toxic interpersonal interactions". You can have either without the other, and I wouldn't automatically assume that skill at one implies skill at the other.

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#132

Post by sqeaky »

astrodust wrote: post #54
dcposch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Brilliant jerks are often to be found at the beating heart of successful software. Exhibit 0: Linus Torvalds

Exhibit B: Steve Ballmer.

There are multiple ways to be a jerk. Clearly Gates succeeded and Ballmer failed. The Gates went on to stop being a jerk.

It would be nice to see some example of a Jerk and non-Jerk attempting the same strategy.

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#133

Post by [deleted] »

braveo wrote: post #37
beachy wrote: post #13

> A “No Jerks” Policy Must Be Built Into Your Culture. It is entirely possible to be extremely passionate (and even brilliant) without being a jerk. A “no jerks” policy must be preached and practiced from the highest levels. Following simplistic rules like this is usually what leaves us knee deep in the proverbial. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never worked with anyone who's as much of a jerk as described in the ar…

I stopped reading when the blogger started talking about the "brilliant developer who could code circles around us", and then referred to him as a "10x developer". These are stereotypes, and quite often bloggers will make up stories to illustrate a point. Which is fine, but when your point is based upon stereotypes, then I'm not interested. ---- So with that said, I agree with everything you've said. Quite often thes…

[deleted]

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#134

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Lots of thoughts around the code review issue (the jerk generated 'hundreds of comment').

I have a rule: the only comments I make are about improving the correctness of the code. Nothing about technique or approach or format or cleverer ways of doing anything. Just directly actionable constructive comments.

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#135

Post by DesiLurker »

IMO the 10x productivity thing is a bit of straw-man. thats rarely the case. but realistically its more like 3-4x. I'd include one crucial factor in evaluating this that I always look for in new hires, its Ownership! Do you have commitment to your responsibilities or is it just about finding immediate gain (could be ego for brilliant jerks or security for mediocre lazy bum). IMO in long run if you are about avg you will converge on the 'right' solution if you are looking for it. the problem IMO is many engineers have weak sense of ownership of what they do & based on their capabilities they adjust their behavior.

I'd factor in the motives behind being jerk before judging. Is it that they are just mean egotistical person whose using his technical superiority or there is genuine desire to make things better even if it means 'breaking a few eggs' in short-term?

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#136

Post by achikin »

athenot wrote: post #56

Maybe it's just me but most truly brilliant people with whom I've worked, have been the opposite: very nice. They were not only smart in their own field but also smart on an emotional level. They were the kind of people you wanted to be around, and they were constantly learning from other brilliant people, recognizing that a bad personality creates friction to learning.

Maybe that is because you're positive and open-minded enough to concentrate on their good qualities and not to perceive them in passive-agressive way as 'jerks'? :)

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#137

Post by ImTalking »

Been there. Was involved in a telco software project where one person was a genius, a true unicorn. We were in meetings where some of his insight and perspective left us scratching our heads in amazement. Yet he was the most destructive co-worker I've ever come across.

He never did anything. He would belittle others if they didn't grasp things. He would see a well-layout project plan and laugh and say that he could do it in a weekend, and management would listen because of his intellect and dominating presence. Every request for him to actually do any work was met with a 'too busy' answer, yet he would berate others for not meeting schedules.

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#138

Post by zeveb »

Waterluvian wrote: post #24
beachy wrote: post #13

> A “No Jerks” Policy Must Be Built Into Your Culture. It is entirely possible to be extremely passionate (and even brilliant) without being a jerk. A “no jerks” policy must be preached and practiced from the highest levels. Following simplistic rules like this is usually what leaves us knee deep in the proverbial. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never worked with anyone who's as much of a jerk as described in the ar…

Hey that's me! I had a frustrating moment the other day where a colleague said that float(5) was more explicit and personally preferred in Python than a literal 5.0 I realised I was being pedantic but I genuinely believed in "good craftsmanship" when I really pushed him to change it. I need to get better at this because the social friction I caused may cost more than the poor craftsmanship. But the other part of me i…

Your colleague is clearly wrong. Seriously, 'coërce the integer five to floating point' vice 'the floating point number 5.0'?

Does he also prefer to right integers as 'int(float(5))'? The mind boggles, it really does.

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#139

Post by pipio21 »

I have created some companies and managed lots of people.

In my experience, the moment I hear someone calling someone else "jerk", it tells me more about the person telling it than about the "jerk" itself.

In particular it tells me you as manager can't handle this people, and you are incompetent as manager and need to improve you handling people's skills.

It is something similar to Cesar Millan working with dogs, but instead of Cesar visiting dog owners that do not have a clue about the dogs they have,it is a similar process with people. I am somewhat of a "natural" managing people but also studied practical phycology for years in order to understand and manage different people and I can testify that most managers are so clueless in the practical side of things(they probably studied the things they don't apply in practice).

A "no brilliant jerks" policy is the best thing you can do for your competitors that know how to handle them. Call it "Always live in your comfort zone""Do not learn" policy. Go for it.

I personally love to welcome those jerks in my company and fix their traumas with clueless managers. It is also very profitable, you make money doing good and feels very satisfying at the end(after the work of fixing the traumas).

Re: Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

#140

Post by antisthenes »

Waterluvian wrote: post #24
beachy wrote: post #13

> A “No Jerks” Policy Must Be Built Into Your Culture. It is entirely possible to be extremely passionate (and even brilliant) without being a jerk. A “no jerks” policy must be preached and practiced from the highest levels. Following simplistic rules like this is usually what leaves us knee deep in the proverbial. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never worked with anyone who's as much of a jerk as described in the ar…

Hey that's me! I had a frustrating moment the other day where a colleague said that float(5) was more explicit and personally preferred in Python than a literal 5.0 I realised I was being pedantic but I genuinely believed in "good craftsmanship" when I really pushed him to change it. I need to get better at this because the social friction I caused may cost more than the poor craftsmanship. But the other part of me i…

It wouldn't even enter my mind to argue about something so trivial.

Then again, I'm not a software developer (even though I did write some Python scripts for my workflow in the past).

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