
When It’s Good to Be Antisocial - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/when-its-good-to-be-antisocial
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ianai
As an introvert myself I decide whether to be social on energy levels and a
basic benefits/cost balance. Sometimes life’s too short for certain things.

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rjmill
They missed a great opportunity in the title: "When It's Good to _Bee_
Antisocial"

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trattodet
Taking this as a metaphor, there are times at work where I want to be asocial
and work on a project alone. However, my company's culture is to be
collaborative and do things in groups. While I can see their goal is to
strengthen interpersonal bonds, I find it can be a waste of resources. This
can happen mostly in cases where we're solving a new problem as opposed to
maintaining a legacy system. When multiple employees are working in a realm
where their knowledge is limited, but growing, it can cause wheel-spinning
because of other commitments. Sometimes going solo allows you to back out of
dead ends more quickly and make progress that you can eventually share with
others.

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dogruck
TIL there are over 20,000 species of bees, and many of those species are
"antisocial."

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nsxwolf
"Antisocial" is a strange word because it can also carry the connotation of
"violent". Hence "Antisocial behavior". This article's use of the word is more
like "introversion".

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32days8kd
I do research in this area, and it frustrates me (although you have no control
over colloquial use)

"Antisocial" roughly means "sociopathic" or "not abiding by societal rules and
norms," generally with the implication that this not abiding is at others'
expense.

.. as in the DSM and legal use of the term "antisocial personality disorder."

The author means "asocial" or "introverted", as you point out.

The author's choice of term is actually very poor writing in this case because
it's a scientific paper, and scientific use should be followed, especially
when you're discussing behavior.

It's particularly confusing in this case because "antisocial" in its formal
sense could actually be meaningful in this context, as in freeloading bees, or
those that otherwise take advantage of other bees to their detriment in a game
theory sense. There are many evolutionary theories of antisociality that are
based on this general sense. So the article's word use is very poor.

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hanoz
Non sociable has always been a valid, and in my experience the primary,
meaning of the word antisocial. The sociopathic definition has come to
prominence relatively recently, hand in hand with its adoption as a favoured
euphemism in the authorities' rebranding of low level crime.

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aswanson
Somewhat off topic, but I subscribed to Nautilus (print edition) last year,
paid, and only received 2 issues. They do good articles but if you subscribed
I'd advise against the physical copy version.

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mabub24
Not to justify them shafting you, but I remember seeing articles around April
this year that Nautilus has been dealing with financial troubles. Writers have
been waiting on payment and the editor admitted: "they were running on fumes".
I don't know if they've managed new funding sources, or maybe a kind of
patronage, but that could explain their difficulties with the print editions.

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aswanson
Yeah, that's sad. I don't plan on pressing them...they do quality work. I wish
stuff like that had more support. I hope they pull through.

