[Test0129]

> People joke about the programmer in a dark corner plugging away and never talking to others, but that's actually pretty rare. In 20 years I've only worked with a handful of developers who don't want to socialize, collaborate, or solve problems together.

On the contrary I rarely meet engineers that want to collaborate all the time unless they don't fit the typical profile of an engineer (usually a transfer from another industry). Engineers, much like myself, like to work alone not because we are loners but because often times so-called "deep work" requires actual quiet time. I don't like meetings, I don't like to pair unless there is some mutual misunderstanding that needs to be resolved, and I like to control my small talk (because I have a tendency to talk a lot about CS). I'm not a shut in, I just have work to do. Pairing excessively, for example, is an antipattern. When I worked in an office I would regularly leave my headphones on even when I got coffee because if I didn't someone would inevitably find a way to pull me away when I needed to be doing thinking.

There is time and place for scuttlebutt and honestly the amount of work I have to do every day leaves very little time for it. I could also be an extreme case because being introverted generally, a large number of meetings physically exhausts me. I've estimated I can make it ~30 minutes in a meeting before I am checked out.

The more rules, people, and processes that are put in my way just reduce my effectiveness. This leads to more frustration than it solves. For example, all these company parties and get togethers, "fun" meetings, etc are annoying to me because I legitimately stress out when I can't complete my work on my own (internal) timetable.