Ask HN: Charisma (faked) trumps (real) technical skills? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Charisma (faked) trumps (real) technical skills?

1 pointDreamScatter3 comments

Apparently, in the society we live, somebody who is more skilled than a more charismatic person is usually not going get as many opportunities.

I know this from first hand experience, as I am a highly skilled person and people seem to consider me as uncharismatic (which is an illusion, as I actually can be very charismatic if you actually get to know me in a positive way).

The thing is, the universities and many people otherwise on a power trip (such as the "Julia Stewards") fail to invoke the hidden charisma inside me. So to them, I seem as a very uncharismatic person who needs to be ostracized and banned.

So, a highly skilled person like me who is perceiceved as not being charismatic (due to having a spine and backbone against people on a power trip), will be ostracized and banned and not get opportunities.

However, the less skilled people who are perceived as charismatic are often involved in secret gossip and backstabbing and are less technically skilled, yet they get promoted and receive the most opportunities.

You seem to be dealing with a very specific situation that relates to you.

"Hands-on" skills are not the only valuable skill (however you define them), and being able to communicate effectively is sometimes more important. With today's prerogative of building "things" (whether that's a product or a research paper) as a team, communication skills easily slide to the top.

What you may perceive as "charisma" is probably a better communication skill: it can be learned as well.

Now notably, academic circles are generally festered with politics, and it takes a really strong will to let your skill do the talking. But in commercial settings, good managers are aware that you can get away with a few bad communicators if they are extraordinarily skilled, as long as you channel their energy properly.

In general, you can rarely control what others do, so the best starting point is to control what you do: try to train yourself to manage your emotions, to be more diplomatic in how you critique others (perhaps check out Radical Candor?), and how to gain the skill to let your skills shine through without getting pulled down to the "gossip" level.

Sometimes easier said than done, when the best way out is, well... out.

Good comment, but I don't necessarily think that I completely lack communication skills. Perhaps I am too skilled at communicating, and people just don't like what I'm communicating to them. Of course, that is also context dependent, as nobody can be an expert communicator in every possible context.

Perhaps. It is possible that a community just cannot handle an extremely high level of social and communication skills. It becomes too much for them.

The same thing can happen to politicians too; some of them are just so gifted, well-informed and good with people that everyone starts disliking them.

It's an interesting phenomenon.

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