
The value of complementary co-workers (2019) - hhs
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaax3370
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mrkstu
Its definitely truer than I'd have believed until recently. I have a co-worker
whose technical chops are, let's say, below average. He tends to get a bit
mulish about things and when troubleshooting often focuses on the wrong area.

In the past I'd have wanted someone like him replaced with someone higher
skilled. But in his case, he is often invaluable. He is great about being
responsive to interior customer/stakeholders. He is gregarious and great at
relationships. He is wonderful at vendor relations.

The team is just big enough that having someone with those skills is
invaluable in a team filled with technically minded introverts with many
likely mildly on the spectrum. We can afford to carry him on his technical
demerits while he carries us in our weakest areas.

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darkerside
How do you deal with newer members of the team? Are you worried that his lack
of skill will "rub off" in any way with talented but less experienced people
who may look to him for guidance?

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mrkstu
Its pretty quickly obvious that I'm the technical lead to new people and they
come to me for those things and go to him for 'soft' info. Works very well.

The most recent additions are an interesting mix- I recommended a previous co-
worker and she's come in and been a mixed skill set as well- she's older and
less flexible in learning new stuff, but customer focused and an old hand with
a lot of knowledge.

Two new younger guys with a lot of energy and willingness to learn have been
great to work with as I help them learn our stack of solutions. Again a wide
mix of aptitudes has been enriching to the team beyond what younger me would
have thought. That previous version of me would have wanted a bunch of
technical hot shots that were all wanting to learn quickly and excel at
everything.

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_pmf_
One of the best work experiences has been working with embedded HW engineers
whose skill set slightly overlapped mine (and vice versa). You learn from each
other via constructive, lively discussion. No dogma involved.

Reduce the slight overlapping of skills, and you get one side ridiculing the
other from their high horse of second order ignorance.

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ipython
In other words you don’t hire to your strengths, you hire your weakness.

Funny side note I originally read the title as “the value of complimentary
coworkers” which I also find to be true :)

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chrisweekly
I've always liked that notion (phrased slightly differently), "Hire for
strengths, not to avoid weaknesses."

which IIRC I first came across in "The Hard Thing About Hard Things"
(Horowitz)

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jonplackett
> having co-workers with qualifications similar to one’s own is costly, having
> co-workers with complementary qualifications is beneficial.

This seems like a pretty obvious conclusion no? Wouldn’t you guess this was
the case?

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rckoepke
A lot of people feel that if the current team is successful, then obviously
you should hire more people who are similar to your current team.

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rhizome31
Very true, I've heard a lot from management things like "we need another you"
or "we need to clone you".

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jonplackett
Yeah point taken. Guess I have heard that too.

