[Yeul]

I don't think so. Lots of people went into IT because they don't have those soft skills. If you're in management you need to be a people person.

I think HN underestimates the amount of petty bullshit that managers have to fix in order for a company to function reasonably well.

[bsenftner]

HN also underestimates the level of pettiness in the non-people-persons who became managers in tech. I was recently down voted for commenting that the typical tech manager does not want their engineers to have communication skills such that they can push back on unreasonable demands. My experience has been that is absolutely true; sure, they will say they want quality communications, but only as long as those communications are in agreement with whatever that manager and management want. Try telling them the truth that the overall architecture is bad, or there are these fundamental negative issues that were never addressed and are now consuming larger and larger resources to continue to "ignore"...

Actually being a material operator in a company that makes a difference is exactly what many, the majority, of middle managers simply can't handle. It scares them. It is too large, too aggressive, and demands too much upper level communications they can't handle. Not rocking the boat is the only game most managers know how to play, as the management above them appears simply untouchable to them.

[P_I_Staker]

Yes, I think part of the problem is we view social skills, charisma, etc. as givens, or even as virtues.

We forget that these things actually take a lot of brain function, it's an ability. It's something we do effortlessly, but there's actually a lot going on.

For example, struggles of people with ADHD and ASD can be hard to understand because many things that we take for granted are harder and more nuanced than people realize.