[claudiulodro]

> High-paying careers favor those with the stomach for deep, solitary work.

Where can I get some of this high-paid, deep, solitary work? These days software engineering is ultra-collaborative, and I doubt anybody would say that doctors/nurses, managers, finance people, or lawyers are doing deep, solitary work.

[arcturus17]

Not only do top software engineers or designers need to work in ultra-collaborative environments - even if that were not the case, and regardless of these being highly paid professionals, their rise in prominence will in no way shift "the balance of wealth and power" in the world.

If someone thinks that paying a small group of people six-figure salaries will shift any type of balance in the world, they need to take a hard look at their assumptions and views.

The article lacks any intellectual rigor.

[jvanderbot]

Deep, Solitary work does not mean non-collaborative.

You can, without talking to a single human being, complete design reviews, claim and fix 1000s of bugs, review PRs, update and ship documentation or releases, etc etc.

Deep Solitary just means "asynchronous", "uninterrupted", and "self-scheduled" in this context.

[pxue]

No it doesn’t.

Reviewing other people’s PR is a collaborative task, fixing bugs "reported by others" is a collaborative work, updating docs and release notes for "other" stakeholder's consumption is collaborative work.

Unless you're building a house deep in the woods for you by you, you're collaborating with other people on different levels.

Let's be honest, introversion is a gradient scale, maybe we've shifted a bit more towards cutting out the office Watercooler talks but everything we do as a species is still highly collaborative.

[jvanderbot]

Exactly, those are obviously "collaborative" things that can happen by people working alone and without every seeing or talking to another person.

The definition of collaborative that includes "In person" is just wrong.

[thebackup]

Where can I get some of this high paid, asynchronous, uninterrupted, and self-scheduled work?

[vanusa]

These days software engineering is ultra-collaborative,

The rub is that it's both "deep, solitary" and ultra-collaborative. (Not for all, but for many, for some value of "deep"). That's what makes it such a demanding job, when done right.

Of course many managers don't care about / can't tell between "done right, or at least adequately right" or not, but that's a different topic.

I doubt anybody would say that doctors/nurses, managers, finance people, or lawyers are doing deep, solitary work.

Medical researchers, finance quants, and yes, (certain kinds of) lawyers all regularly do work that is, if not monastically solitary (or as deep as doing a math PhD) -- definitely much more focused than what is realistically possible in most open-plan, junk food driven, "just add the button the customer is crazy for it" development environments.

And in an case, much more focused than what their managers will most likely ever be capable of.

[version_five]

Yeah, I dont believe this. Maybe "favor those with the stomach for deep, solitary work, who can also easily context switch to meetings where they use their natural sales and political skills to get buy-in for what they are doing". There may be some rare environments where good deep workers are well supported by management and have someone else to interpret and "sell" what they've done, but it's a rarity. Even the best work needs to be well communicated, positioned within the context of what the org is doing, etc, which always favors collaboration and social skills

[Abishek_Muthian]

Forget Reign, I doubt if an introvert could even survive LinkedIn as that's where they hunt for talent.

LinkedIn's algorithm overwhelmingly favors conformists, On any typical day 'Look what I have done, Why are people not doing this, To be great like me ...' type posts can get 30,000 likes and an Introvert can't even compete with that.

The issue of conformity does persist in all social media, But LinkedIn has taken it to a whole new level and that a professional is expected to have an LinkedIn account deserves special scrutiny as it's biased.

[marto1]

Times are approaching some sort of a surreal sort of balancing act where you're both required to be a super deep thinker and a "10x"er AND a happy go-to yes-man that deals with all of the 9 circles of corporate bureaucracy with a smile on your face.

I believe this is exactly what happens to young large industries that grew way too fast, went into politics and now everyone wants a piece of the pie.

[toyg]

I think it depends on the definition of that "deep solitary work". Writing a report for an hour or so can feel like extremely deep and extremely solitary, even though it's just a trivial report.

[oceanghost]

Came here to say this. I picked this profession largely so I could sit in an air conditioned office and listen to music all day and not have to interact with people.

Now, I'm supposed to be some rock star.

[ASalazarMX]

They didn't say those careers had enough vacants for every introvert.