

Do Successful Programmers Need to Be Introverted? - Arget
http://www.pistoncloud.com/2014/02/do-successful-programmers-need-to-be-introverted/

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tool
How can anyone in this day and age seriously write an article like this, when
programming is cooler than it ever was. Wherever I look related to tech
nowadays, it's always a very social, well spoken and trimmed young man in his
late twenties. All the Googles and Facebooks pride themselves on their
laidback, social and party attitude. People don't IRC or use handles anymore,
instead, it's linkedin and facebook, showing off your social standing.

If this was written ten years ago, I might understand, but now, clueless.

If anything, it's harder than ever to be an introvert.

~~~
jorgeleo
"it's always a very social, well spoken and trimmed young man in his late
twenties"

This does not means extrovert.

The real question is, after being social and well spoken, does he feels
exhausted and ready for a nap?, or does he feels ready for a party? Introverts
can be social and well spoken, but it cost them energy to do so; extroverts on
the other hand, gain energy being social.

And neither has to do anything with being a good programmer. Correlation does
not implies causality

I do agree that is unpopular as ever being an introvert, but then again it was
not a choice to be one, it is just the way you were born wired

~~~
analog31
Is it necessarily a dichotomy? I gain energy from both:

1\. Getting into "the zone" and coding for hours

2\. Hanging out with a bunch of friends, playing jazz, chatting with members
of the audience, etc.

~~~
jorgeleo
Not at all. It is more black and white, where most people falls in one shade
of gray or another, and there is a 50-50 mix too.

A detailed Myers-Briggs test will give you what percent are you on. See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-
Briggs_Type_Indicator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-
Briggs_Type_Indicator), in particular "The test is scored by evaluating each
answer in terms of what it reveals about the taker. Each question is relevant
to one of the following cognitive learning styles. Each is not a polar
opposite, but a gradual continuum."

I do believe though that there is no correlation with your quality as
programmer. Being a good quality programmer is more related to the ability to
sustain and simulate detailed abstract models in your mind... but that is a
blog post on its own.

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bsaul
That made me think, are there any IT workplace where programming is really
considered a "team work", just like sport ? I sometimes felt like this with
some coworkers, when we were under extreme pressure and someone needed help to
fix some mess, or to design something complex, and frankly that's some of my
best memories. But apart from that, doesn't it seem that software development
is such a solitary activity that it can only push forward introverted
behaviors ?

Pushing forward : imagine copying professional sport behavior : software teams
would have some "training sessions" in the morning, where they craft technical
algorithms together, just to practice. And "games" in the afternoon, where
each people would complete its tasks in a very extrovert way, shouting "i'm
done here, who needs help ?" with a dynamic voice, high fiving every 20
minutes whenever some minor milesstone has been achieved. You could even
imagine people programming standing up instead of sitting behind a chair, to
encourage physical motion. Has anyone heard of some workplace like that ?

~~~
yuchi
I work at SMC, Italy. This is the way we want work to be done, and that’s the
goal (sport-pun intended) every one of us has every morning. There are
exceptions, both solitary peers and solitary periods, but that’s what they
are: exceptions. This is the #1 reason I’m not going to easily leave this
company.

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shubb
A while ago, I did one of these horrific team training things with a large
group of people I work with day to day.

We were asked to self assess whether we were introverts or extravert's, and
then the group assessed each person by secret vote. There was very little
match up between how people thought they were, and how everyone else saw them
act.

Actually, a couple of the loudest, most aggressive, difficult people assessed
themselves to be introverts. They were very proud of it, because they had read
on the internet that it made them good programmers.

I wondered at the time, if the introvert/extrovert division is a real thing,
then perhaps they were genuinely introverted, and worked badly with people
because they were uncomfortable. Or perhaps they had always tended to be
loners because they were not good at people, and had come to believe it was
what they preferred.

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sheepmullet
The article is a bit off the mark. Teamwork is orthogonal to focus.
Professional sports teams spend a significant amount of time learning how to
drive out distractions and focus under high pressure. Wanting to focus does
not make you introverted. It is important for high performance regardless of
team size.

Again, practices like agile are orthogonal to introversion. Some of the most
communication heavy projects I have worked on have been waterfall based.

Pair programming is team based work. The problem with it is the constant
communication is distracting for everybody else in the office. This is easily
fixed by having proper offices instead of an open floor plan.... but I've yet
to work at such an amazing place.

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fredgrott
Everyone thinks Jimmi Hendrix was great guitar player.

But, I think we are confusing focus with introvert. AS an example Jimmi
practiced close 90% of waking hours daily and yet I do not think anyone that
knew Jmmi would claim him as an introvert.

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jrs235
Introversion and Extroversion aren't about what you like or how you act in
certain situations. It's what energizes and drains you.

After being in a crowd and around people are you energized (extroverted) or
drained (introverted)? After being alone for a while are you energized
(introverted) or drained (extroverted)?

And just about everyone will say "Depends, sometimes this sometimes that."
because it's a sliding scale and varies throughout our lives.

ADDED: Many introverts are thought of as extroverts because they act outgoing,
are public speakers, etc. We all act and adjust our outward appearance and
actions based on our developed soft social skills. (Psst, you can be
extroverted or introverted AND have good or bad social skills!)

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adamnemecek
I was just thinking that the one thing missing from the frontpage was a blog
post about gender and diversity in tech. Because that's one topic that just
can't be discussed to death.

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baldfat
I use to do Audio Engineering for about 3 years at around 20-60 hours a week.
(My own studio)

Then I started meeting other engineers and guess what I wasn't like them
personality wise and I got burned out.

My rule do something where you fit the personality of those successful. I am
now a Pre-School teacher :)

