Outstanding! I am happy to see someone else recognize that there are skills other than being a social butterfly! I am intimately aware of a workplace where social skills are valued over technical skills. Frequent issues arise due to what I view as a complete lack of understanding of what is required to complete the job! But everybody has fun talking about the Bears, Bulls and Black Hawks!

ENOUGH ALREADY!

Phew, if I seem passionate, it is because I am.

Let me say that social skills are important. There are people on this forum who have better social skills than I do. There are people who are more technical than I am as well. I would bet that there is some small percentage that are very good at both.

What I doubt is that there is more than a handful that are at the top of their game technically, who are also among the best when it comes to social skills at work. The two skills are contrarian, and uncommon to see together. Nobody is going to convince me of anything different because I have worked with hundreds of people, possibly thousands over the years, and can count on one hand those who excelled at both. They exist, for sure, they simply are the exception rather than the rule.

What will the industry look like? We are probably going to see a few companies excel, much like Apple and Google, while the rest of them compete in the courtroom rather than in the back room doing research.