How to Get the Most Out of Your Eccentric Programmer/Genius

http://lispy.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-eccentric-programmergenius/

by raganwald • 18 years ago

48 34 18 years ago

lispy.wordpress.com

ojbyrne2• 18 years ago

Interesting writing but lots of sweeping generalizations which leaves me with nothing to take away from the article. The word "eccentric" means "unusual" - i.e. not prone to sweeping generalizations.

learninglisp4• 18 years ago

Yes. This personality type is prone to making sweeping generalizations. I'll put that down as another generalization about him.

ojbyrne2• 18 years ago

Right, I should have said "not amenable to sweeping generalizations."

nostrademons• 18 years ago

That's a bit of a generalization, don't you think? ;-)

toxik2• 18 years ago

I, for one, found it very striking in most of it.

Generalizing isn't half bad when there's actually distinctive attributes to generalize on.

sfamiliar2• 18 years ago

that article was disturbing. things i've known about myself for a long time but hesitated to put into words for fear someone else would get too good a handle.

it's somehow comforting to know that it's not just me.

MHollender2• 18 years ago

Shit, just pick up any book on Asperger from Amazon.

sfamiliar2• 18 years ago

that's not it -- i don't exhibit any of the social limitations on interaction; i feel empathy, am better than most at reading body language, am a reasonable public speaker, able to generate emotional response from an audience, etc. while i'm fond of and take comfort in ritual (i use a shaving kit, with a brush and bowl, for instance) it is not a governing behavior, and i don't lose myself in repetitive actions. they actually bother me. so that's likely not it.

i don't think the article is describing something that's disorder-ly, just a particular type of mental modeling.

edw5194• 18 years ago

He has little patience for articles that start with "How to" and never actually say how to.

learninglisp4• 18 years ago

Hey, it's the holistic answer to the "how to". What, should I have broken it down into 12 steps?

To sum it up: let him solve problems his own way. Let him develop tools/abstractions that help him hide the sort of details and menial tasks that sap his strength. Force him to get up and go exercise or relax. Don't hold a nebulous infinishable to-do list over his head to guilt trip him-- he will come down off of his creative high and beat himself up for being irresonsible and may even shut down emotionally. Allow him to relate to people one at a time-- a hike with only one of the children, dates and activities without a big crowd. Don't take it personally when he absolutely dreads doing activities you think are "fun". Go stand by his desk until he gets that nagging little task done. Tell him things like, "if you don't get anything else done today, please look into x; it's really important to me." And no, he doesn't need all of a June Cleaver, a secretary, and a personal accountant-- he does need someone to play the part of a "coach", though. And someone that can organize some of the pesky details into something he can act on can be critical to this guy getting anything done.

edw5194• 18 years ago

He loves direct answers to simple questions.

Thank you.

(He also easily grasps difficult obscure concepts while missing the obvious if a subtle shift in perception is needed.)

edw5194• 18 years ago

Don't hold a nebulous infinishable to-do list over his head to guilt trip him-- he will come down off of his creative high and beat himself up for being irresonsible and may even shut down emotionally.

Wow, I didn't even notice this one the first read. It's EXACTLY what I'm going through right now.

It's a test of wills. I'm in the middle of a huge rewrite of a critical app while they insist on bombarding me with minutia (digital whining) every single day. For the first time ever (with them), I refuse. "Live with it until after Labor Day; I'm busy." Stay tuned...

(Anyone looking for a good programmer?)

tdavis2• 18 years ago

When you first meet, you will become his “pet project” for a time.

So it's not just a coincidence that every woman I date has more baggage than an airport? Then I figure that out and keep dating them anyway, perhaps even more resolutely.

Welp, if I'm doomed to date women orders of magnitude more insane than I am, they at least better continue to be exceedingly attractive.

shiranaihito4• 18 years ago

Nice stealth-brag there, but maybe a bit unnecessary. After all, everyone knows that programmers get the hottest chicks!

tdavis2• 18 years ago

Someone is always pissing in my cereal!

More of an attempt to sorta justify it all, if even just to myself. There are far more interesting things to brag about.

shiranaihito4• 18 years ago

Your eccentric programmer genius also responds well to ego-stroking articles explaining what a precious, unique little snowflake he is!

Don't show this to him though, as reading it would cause a mental context switch, and make him feel all sapped and drained!

As we all know, your eccentric genius worker ant is at least 30 times more productive than Joe Average, so making him reattune the universe with his humming inner harmony would result in billions worth of lost productivity!

swombat• 18 years ago

I smell envy.

Everyone responds well to ego-stroking articles. The real question is, can you inject some useful stuff along with the ego-stroking?

shiranaihito4• 18 years ago

I smell a positive response to the article :p

The problem is that there have been lots of articles like this floating around, during the past year for example, and every time the central theme is "We're So Special".

It's getting old.

menloparkbum• 18 years ago

The theme behind this article is a bit dated. I'm reminded of the (probably fictional) story 15 years back about the sysadmin who only worked fully nude from 11pm until 6 am because he was that important and one of the only dudes in the universe who knew unix.

These days there are plenty of Ivy-League-Type-A-personality people who are both easy to work with and good at programming. In most situations nobody is required to deal with an extreme weirdo.

For these articles to be useful, they should be about how said weirdos can alter their behavior to be productive. I know people and even have family members that exhibit some of the traits described, and they are un or underemployed because nobody is interested in putting up with their personality quirks. Nor does anyone need to put up with them. It is still hard to find good programmers, but not nearly as hard as it used to be.

Writing it from the perspective of how to manage these people is pointless, because it is rare that anyone would be required to work with the person described. They can simply find someone better and less socially bizarre.

thaumaturgy• 18 years ago

| Alternately, the effort of getting back in gear so many times in a week or two will gradually wear him down until he’s exhausted, depressed, or worse.

Yep. This is something I've kinda known for a while, but it's right up in my face now. I am currently a (cheap) consultant doing on-site technical support (for, literally, everything), network administration, business processes and systems, and on and on and on. And, when I'm not doing that, I'm trying to get back in to gear for web design and software development.

I'm utterly exhausted. I now have to take a moment when a client hits me with a new problem, and close my eyes, and consciously remember everything related to their particular system.

ryan-allen• 18 years ago

From TFA: "For now we’re going to assume that people like this are not sick even though a subset of the traits may sound superficially like some cases of autism or even schizophrenia." Who the hell is this guy? What kind of call is that? He has no background in this subject matter but his writing as if he's authoritative. Stop linking to him!

learninglisp4• 18 years ago

Let me expand out that opening line for you.

The post explores a perspective for the express purpose of generating and connecting ideas and experiences. Other established interpretations are possible, but we will temporily set them aside so that we can hash out what is (potentially) a new idea.

Why is that so hard for some people to get? It's like you're unable to grasp how mathematics and science is done. You take a premise or form a hypothesis... then you see what you can build on it. 9 times out of 10 it doesn't go anywhere... but the time for rigor is later, not at the beginning.

It's as if the phrase "for the sake of discussion" is completely beyond your mental capacity or something....

known• 18 years ago

Ask him some smart questions. This will stimulate him to deliver his best.

MHollender2• 18 years ago

"As far as dating and relationships go, women should be careful with this guy."

This guy must be living in Fantasyland. Since when are women interested in Aspies? We aren't exactly the type who often has his hair cut or likes to go to a restaurant.

learninglisp4• 18 years ago

There's a certain type of female that is completely addicted to the sort of raw intimacy and lavish attention that this type of person will deliver during the early stages of the relationship. They will overlook all kinds of problem signals if they are getting what they need in their inner core.

As another person said, this type of woman will have serious issues. That won't change the fact that you're getting laid.

KevBurnsJr• 18 years ago

To most people, "it's just words" ...

Kudos.

lsc• 18 years ago

a secretary and an accountant are both usually good ideas. Usually businesses have the accountant part down pat (most people I know like this live so far below their means that being bad with money doesn't really matter) but often companies will ask this guy to do things that are better suited to the secretary. S/he should be designing the inventory system, if some thing s/he builds needs to go in the inventory system, have someone else deal with that part. 'uninteresting details' are better left to those who are good at dealing with 'uninteresting details'

How to Get the Most Out of Your Eccentric Programmer/Genius

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