Being an Asshole Is Totally Underrated

Let me know which person you think in this conversation comes across as better or worse? Which person rubs you the wrong way?

Let’s say you’re having a conversation and one person is really excited about a new project he’s completed or a task he’s done or just some kind of accomplishment. The other guy has done some other accomplishments on his own and he’s also done a really great job and they both want to share what they’ve been working on.

The first person says, “Hey Joe, I’ve been working on this project, come check this out. This is really cool.” Then the other guy says, “oh yeah, that is pretty cool. Let me check that out.” Or, the other guy says, “Hey Joe, come check this out, this is pretty cool.” Then the other guy says, “yeah, that’s pretty cool I guess but you ought to see what I did.”

You see there’s a difference between the body language and the way they both come across. So, the first one is excited about what they do. They just wanted to share what they’ve done, they’re excited about what they’ve done with really no thought about how they’re coming across. They don’t sound conceited or arrogant, they don’t sound like they have a big ego. They don’t sound like an asshole versus the other one who sounds like ‘oh yeah, I’ve done some great work, but I am ridiculing your work because your work is not as important as mine and I do more important work’. That is gloating.

My Conversation on Twitter

The reason that I wanted to talk about this kind of topic is that I recently had a conversation on Twitter about how IT pros and geeks, in particular, are typically the former. I haven’t met a whole lot of assholes that gloat and try to put down other people. You know, what they have to say about what they do. It’s typically the opposite. A lot of IT pros and geeks in general really don’t have any kind of malignant intentions but most of them I found have impostor syndrome where “well I don’t think I’m good enough to be in this position or I don’t think I should be in here.” It’s always I’m not good enough, it’s always lack of self-esteem and lack of confidence.

I Tweeted for IT pros to be confident in their skills and it’s okay to gloat a little and you need to actually become more confident in your ability, so…