
Research points to to conscientiousness as the one trait to rule them all (2014) - brandonhall
http://time.com/3136568/science-points-to-the-single-most-valuable-personality-trait/?
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lutusp
The article quotes the currently popular psychological "grit" literature more
than once, to support the idea that creative people, notwithstanding their
gifts, are often extremely annoying. For those who missed a recent drama, a
psychological diagnosis called "Asperger's" was briefly popular, until people
noticed that many very successful people met the diagnostic criteria (Albert
Einstein, Bill Gates, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton among others). So
psychologists, nothing if not flexible, unceremoniously dropped Asperger's and
replaced it with the "grit" meme. The latter condition celebrates the same
traits that the former condition condemned.

But the article is titled in a way that contradicts its own conclusion, which
is that creative people may be seen only as uncooperative and antisocial, at
least when they're young.

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blackkettle
The article and all the quoted studies do indicate that conscientiousness is
probably the most important positive trait (which I guess will elicit a few
irreverent 'no duh's), but it also points out there are some equally powerful
and opposite traits like neuroticism low agreeableness, which lower the
utility of being conscientious. The title sort of omits the latter part.

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amelius
> Conscientiousness is the state of being thorough, careful, or vigilant; it
> implies a desire to do a task well.

My coding is extremely clean, but my desk looks like crap. So what is the
verdict?

~~~
TeMPOraL
It means you care about your code, but your desk is simply not important to
you.

I'm the same. Why people seem to have problems with that? There's limited
amount of things we can care about. Some people simply care about different
things than most.

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milansm
"To be blunt, having your shit together is a respectable quality."

Not a native speaker, but I am surprised to see this kind of language in a
magazine like Time. Is this normal for printed editions as well?

~~~
digbyloftus
It's an opinion piece by a guy who spends his time pumping out listicles and
great journalism such as "How the Hunger Games Can Help You Stop
Procrastinating". I don't think it's one of their main articles/something that
would appear in print.

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jchrisa
The article contrasts conscientiousness with creativity, saying perhaps we
give short shrift to people who are actually creative.

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glxc
is this the same thing as awareness?

~~~
Nutmog
That's consciousness.

