When They're Idiots

Since this blog is still in the earliest stages and I haven't done anything to help people find it, I expect I'm writing mostly to see myself think these days. The result is that I spend a fair amount of time thinking each day how to let you know this information exists. The evolution of my thinking has gone from figuring I would advertise something like, "Get more soft skills now" - which I realized would turn off techies immediately to actually talking about the problems that real tech-geeks have - such as, "They're all idiots and don't listen to me."

No matter how I slice it though, the solution seems to be to make some changes in how we do things so that we can be more effective. It's not that we're not technical enough (though I'm sure you can point out someone for whom that's a problem), it's that we don't always relate well to other people who are not technical (sometimes we don't even relate well to each other). And there's the rub. It's the non-technical people we need to reach if we're going to be of any use.

Of course, as soon as I think that, I have this image come to mind of the names of the various people I've worked with who would immediately protest that it's not fair, why do they have to change when others don't seem to want to. Or they consider it inappropriate or undesirable to have a manager ask them to change their personalities. "This is just the way I am," they say. I do want to be clear... I don't mean to be suggesting a personality overhaul. I mean only to shift perspectives slightly to see what small modifications we can make that would help other people understand us better. And yeah, it's not fair that we may be the only ones stretching that far. Who's benefit are we doing it for, though? If we don't do it, someone else will and that person will be the one helping out the dumb jerks who can't tell their... oh, excuse, me... I lost myself for a moment... while we... while we... hmmm. If you've got something better to go do, then definitely do it. I highly advocate that. If not, then, no whiners!

Take a look at the situation from someone else's point of view long enough to see if you can make any modifications in your approach (not your general personality) that can makes things go more smoothly. If you don't wanna, go do something else where you don't hafta.