original publish date: 9th April, 2010
decades on …
This is one of the premises covered in the comics (more than once) that still resonates with me the most.
Notwithstanding the genuinely regrettable gendered framing, the trade-off between capability and the ability to engage constructively is real, for everyone involved.
Treated like an “equation”:
As the ‘talent‘
- Even if you’re talented, your behaviour can still make it not worth having you around.
- Best not to push your luck if you’re overestimating your value.
- But do push your luck if you’re not leveraging your value.
- Your value goes up even more when it isn’t offset by being a dick.
As a manager of talent:
- You should be ok with tolerating more from people who genuinely add more value.
- You should tolerate less from people who don’t.
- And (as per this comic), there are limits.
See? So useful.
transcript
FTE #1: Look, I’m the best technical guy you’ve ever had. If you’re not going to listen to me, I’ll go work somewhere that will.
FTE #2: Let me know how that works out.
Caption: Don’t let your princess outweigh your talent.