

So long, and thanks for the Ph.D. - sorenbs
http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~palsberg/azuma.html

======
bootload
_"... We discovered that we could tell what performance group the interviewees
belonged to within a minute or two by their attitudes toward people and
politics. Individuals who were ranked low by their managers spoke of
organizational politics as if it were poison. They were exceptionally annoyed
by the people side of the business. ... They characterized the social side of
organizations as "soft and gushy." They sounded like Spock turned bitter...
The difference between them and those ranked at the bottom of the totem pole
was clear. They had found a way to make peace with organizations, people, and
politics. They climbed to the top of their field by mastering both hard things
and soft and gushy people ..."_

Is this why people try so hard to be popular? Training for mastering the 'soft
& gushy'?

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iqster
This is an old old article. I read it many times when I was doing my CS PhD.
There is a quote on initiative that always resonated with me. "The difference
between people who exercise initiative and those who don't is literally the
difference between night and day. I'm not talking about a 25 to 50 percent
difference in effectiveness; I'm talking about a 5000-plus percent difference,
particularly if they are smart, aware, and sensitive to others."

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joshrule
The same article, posted on the author's homepage, hit HN about a month ago.
There are some pretty good comments there as well. Check it out.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1999010>

I will say that, as I'm preparing for grad school, this sort of writing is
incredibly helpful. If anyone else is considering writing a piece like this, I
encourage you to do so.

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stevenbedrick
This article is full of excellent advice- anybody out there thinking about a
PhD would be well-advised to read it, and pay especially close attention to
the part about figuring out _why_ you want the PhD.

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lightcatcher
Anyone else notice the mention of Randy Pausch? Quite sure this article was
before he became famous for his "Last Lecture"

~~~
tom_b
Sure. Pausch had a connection to Fred Brooks, who founded and built the CS
program at UNC-CH. And Brooks was on Azuma's (the article's author) committee.

