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When Smart People Make Bad Employees
theodp writes "Writing for Forbes, CS-grad-turned-big-time-VC Ben Horowitz gives three examples of how the smartest people in a company can also be the worst employees: 1. The Heretic, who convincingly builds a case that the company is hopeless and run by a bunch of morons; 2. The Flake, who is brilliant but totally unreliable; 3. The Jerk, who is so belligerent in his communication style that people just stop talking when he is in the room. So, can an employee who fits one of these poisonous descriptions, but nonetheless can make a massive positive contribution to a company, ever be tolerated? Quoting John Madden's take on Terrell Owens, Horowitz gives a cautious yes: 'If you hold the bus for everyone on the team, then you'll be so late that you'll miss the game, so you can't do that. The bus must leave on time. However, sometimes you'll have a player that's so good that you hold the bus for him, but only him.' Ever work with a person who's so good that he/she gets his/her own set of rules? Ever been that person yourself?"
Your first clue is that you refer to them as "users" :)
Of course, he doesn't mention the smart person that shows up on time, does their work dutifully, and saves the company money by doing over and above what their job entails.
You know what's worse than a smart person who is lazy and doesn't show up on time? A dumb person that is lazy and doesn't show up on time. All of those traits he listed aren't qualities that solely belong to "smart people."
Many places don't want individual thinkers in all positions, they want 'team players,' where team player means someone who shuts up and does what they're told. The larger the company is, the fewer outspoken people they want.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I have found that smart people are really bad at simple, repetitive, boring tasks.
They get bored, start daydreaming, and make mistakes.
I find that they automate away the problem, and then spend their time doing whatever they want while pretending to work.
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The worst people that I have worked with had AMAZING people skills.
They could convince, seemingly rational people, of almost anything... regardless of glaring logical holes or inconsistencies.
They seemed to have some sort of narcissistic disorder and usually would trend projects towards whatever outcome would earn them the most dough or gratification with little regard to the success of the outcome.
I would take a few non-communicative geeks over a boatload of these asshats any day of the week, but then I do not work in Marketing so what the hell
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