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.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that most people in this industry think they're introverts, when actually they're just a victim of extremely poor working environments, i.e. open plan offices.

No other industry I can think of has such a disparity between what an employee needs for the best productivity versus what they're given by their employer, i.e. solitude to concentrate.

The longer I've spent away from an open plan office, the more sociable I've become, especially over the last 15 months.

Similarly as you rise 'up the ladder', you have to communicate more, you cannot be an introvert.

I can see it helping those who have things like social anxiety with in person communication but that's very different from being an introvert.

Haha, no, absolutely not. Power and wealth will still be accumulated primarily through persuading and influencing others. Good luck accumulating significant capital without that!

This low-brow content should really be posted on Reddit and not HN: 1. Definition of Introvert is wrong: introvert can be gregarious, loud, and fun at parties. Introvert vs extrovert is more determined by where you get your energy from. 2. Mostly copies idea from this article [1]

[1] https://marker.medium.com/context-sensitivity-and-the-introv...

I make this comment because the largest mistake I made in my adolescence was continually being too quiet, which later on I realized made just about any goal I had harder on myself, whether it was basic networking, meeting potential co-founders, customers, partners, or whatever it may be. It took me many years to realize how to be extroverted in a much more effective way, and even longer to become comfortable with things like cold-emailing people to ask for things.

The skills and mindset of an introvert may be more valuable now, but knowing when you should put on your extrovert hat is still one of the highest ROI skills that one can learn (and also can be pretty difficult for many introverted mindsets to become comfortable with).

The gamut of personality types includes both introverts and extroverts. And not only are those not the only two, even among introverts and extroverts, there are degrees of introversion and extroversion.

Companies need all types to be optimally successful. Conflating personality types with goodness and badness is simply creating conflict. Don't fall for it.

But, who says they are?

I don't think Gates, Bezos or Zuck fit the "introvert" profile. Of course they are technical, but not necessarily introverted.

Perhaps an equally meaningful title would be "the reign of gemini is here" and we could all enjoy that cosmopolitan article together :')

The work is always going to be collaborative, that is a given and the purpose of teams, but the shift right now is that as data and tech becomes more prevalent, the old times when extroverts governed by mere non-technical skills is going to wane in importance, because everything could be automated and quantified, leading to less room for human BS to climb the corporate ladder.

As the article mentions which I totally agree, communication becomes more important as you move up the ladder. But here is the key: it is easier for a technical person to learn soft skills than for a nontechnical person to do the reverse.

That is why the combination of engineering + MBA is so dangerous. It is because introverts are not given/interested in the chance to rule, that we don't see it often. But for a future where tech is going to dominate almost every industry, a firm's survival is going to depend on introverts.

For those interested, I recommend reading the book "Quiet" by Susan Cain, it explains this pretty well.

lol what? More stereotypes?

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

I assume he means programming. Just because you work in a solitary environment doesn't mean you're an introvert. It really more requires the ability to focus more than anything in my experience. I've known a bunch of great programmers who were also extroverts.

> In-person schmoozing has taken a backseat to an online workday where the ability to self-motivate matters most.

I don't think this has changed because promotion is based largely on human bias more than anything. Making an impression on someone is still as important as it ever was, we just do it using a different medium. (zoom, teams, slack, email).

> Crafting a witty one-liner on apps determines your dating success — not the ability to pick someone up at a bar.

It might get you a date, but your personality gets you the second date.

* Also shared by most people with ADHD.

- As much as current developments have made for more accommodating work/social environments for introverts, I wouldn't go as far as to say that "introverts have the upper hand". If anything, I would say the shift towards increasingly digital modes of interaction tends to reward those with a flair for self-advocacy even more -- just think about who tends to dominate discourse in online forums/social media/conference calls. I personally rely heavily on non-verbal cues to express myself/gauge others in social settings but there isn't really a channel for that type of expression in digital environments. That in turn leads to me feeling like I need to be more verbally engaged despite that not being my natural inclination, which then feeds back into a spiral of mental exhaustion -> degraded conversation and thinking -> more exhaustion.

- The characterization of extroverts as shmoozers and social climbers and introverts as doing "actual work" is rather unfair -- in the past, I've worked with both "introverts" who recognized they could skate by just doing the bare minimum to say they did something in standup and staying out of the way of everyone else and "extroverts" who would actively drop by to check if I needed help with anything. Moreover, in roles like that of a technical lead or solutions architect, being able to clearly articulate and discuss designs is a far more important skill than being a code-cranking steam engine which by the definitions of the article are "extroverted" qualities. When it comes to implementation I'd agree that heads-down, interruption-free environments are the most conducive, but the further I progress as a software engineer the more I've come to realize that implementation is only the tip of the iceberg.

I think introverts as characterized in the article do have it as good as ever as employees, but that is still far from a "reign of introverts". With the growing trends of creator economies and self-employment, self-advocacy is only going to become an even more crucial skill set and mentality to develop -- I can anecdotally attest that the notion that dedication to your craft alone is enough to carry you is a fallacy, and I think those most prone to burnout/depression in creative and self-employed endeavors are those who don't anticipate the level of self-advocacy needed to break through.

I also notice that status update meetings seem to be more common.

For example, there is some correlation with being tall and being successful. Probably similar for attractiveness things that don't show up in a video of just your face.

Yet I have heard about plenty of people in major tech cmpanies like google and apple feeling like they are in a rut despite the good pay. So if you measure satisfaction by just money you miss out on other factors. It's not like a tech job guantees a path to deep and fulfilling work.