Question from a reader --
Hi Sebastian,
You mentioned in "On Disagreeing With A Client's Plans" that there are benefits to being good at politics, looking good, etc. Why should one invest his or her energy in politics (activity A) rather than activities X, Y, and Z?
Sincerely,
S
I gave a rather brief reply to S --
"Because being good at politics is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition to succeed at most of life."
That would have been the end of it, but he came back with a good clarifying question:
I understand, though I was hoping for an elaboration from your perspective. There are many who I'd argue are quite bad at politics yet make fantastic computer programmers, writers, researchers, academics, etc. -- they excel at their work. There are also many who refuse to "play the game" of politics who make it quite far and who thoroughly enjoy their lives (and I don't mean by purely superficial methods, like drinking).
S
Good question. I think the answered is mostly cleared up by thinking about what politics are exactly.
You could replace the word "politics" with "empathy, understanding other people's goals and motivations, reading people well, negotiating well, protecting your own interests while helping others reach their interests, and otherwise coordinating with others to accomplish things together."
I know a lot of people who have great hard skills, but not the above mix that lets them communicate and work excellently with others. Most of them are marginalized and their impact is limited. I too sometimes dislike that we don't live in a world that runs on logic and rationality exclusively, but it's how it is.
I suppose there's another path to shaking the world and making a huge positive impact -- which would be literally being the single best in the world at what you do to an extreme extent, and additionally breaking old paradigms while innovating and inventing and otherwise doing massively breakthrough work. This would make it viable to be successful with minimal political/social skill, if you (or someone else) is capable of performing at that level.
But if you were capable on that level, and could also work well with others, you'd still get more done. And it doesn't take that long to learn this stuff if you're not arrogant and can tame the fear that very naturally comes from trying to reach out to others and accomplish things.