[nthj]

> Is there some left/right brain separation that keeps techies from being charistmatic

Nah. It's just that most techies are too busy doing brain things to learn soft skills like how to interact with people.

— a guy who struggled with being pretty awkward in high school, worked hard at socializing for a few years, and now does very well with business meetings / networking / parties even though he'd prefer to be delivering code

P.S.: "So if intelligence in itself is not a factor in popularity, why are smart kids so consistently unpopular? The answer, I think, is that they don't really want to be popular."

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html