I am highly skeptical of his assumption that skills like working on a team, communicating with others, and leading others all imply extroversion.
Now that I think about it, most of the people I've worked with (as a programmer) have probably been introverts, and excepting one or two, they've all had excellent team and communication skills.
I am an introvert (reading HN and programming on a Saturday night, and I have no problem with it!), and I am sympathetic to the idea that extroverts are a problem, but I don't think this article articulates that problem in a particularly convincing way.
I think the point is that if those 3 things (working on a team, communicating with others, leading others) are what we start selecting for as the most desirable skills for engineering students, then we effectively have started selecting out introverts and selecting in extroverts. Granted these skills aren't limited to extroverts, but it's much more common to have extroverts with those skills than it is to have introverts with them.
> I think the point is that if those 3 things (working on a team, communicating with others, leading others) are what we start selecting for ... then we effectively have started selecting out introverts and selecting in extroverts.
I think this was the very assumption I was questioning. I am simply unconvinced that these skills imply extroversion. I guess I'm not sure what it would take to convince me, as anecdotally at least, I've found my generally introverted friends to be very competent in these areas.
I also do not frankly believe that these skills are prioritized above technical competence at companies that highly value technical competence. For ho-hum business software, this may be the case, but in that case, it may be that people skills are more important than developer skills, because the problems being solved are just not that challenging from a technical viewpoint. On the other hand, at companies where innovation is very important (well-run startups, Google, Amazon), the interview process will tend to heavily favor technical skills.
Edit: I felt I should explain something better. It is certainly the case that people who have abominable social skills will have a very difficult time getting hired. But frankly, at tech companies, the bar is basically "is able to communicate with people without being an asshole." I'm sorry, but if that is your definition of extrovert, than there is a confusion of terms going on here.
Now that I think about it, most of the people I've worked with (as a programmer) have probably been introverts, and excepting one or two, they've all had excellent team and communication skills.
I am an introvert (reading HN and programming on a Saturday night, and I have no problem with it!), and I am sympathetic to the idea that extroverts are a problem, but I don't think this article articulates that problem in a particularly convincing way.