Ask HN: Strategies for working with engineers that are too smart?
If you haven’t read Stables and Volatiles[0] it’s a great place to start. It’s comforting to know that this is a common, structural management problem and not some one-off. Lots of engineering teams in lots of organizations have faced your challenge.<p>One of the things the blog post does really well is explain how a volatile can be valuable (even essential) in the lifecycle of a company. I personally tend to lean more toward volatile, so I can appreciate the tensions your colleagues are facing.<p>I have a few recommendations…<p>1. It’s very likely they don’t see the value of collaborative team work. You will all benefit from them coming to see the team as important. There’s no magic bullet here, but they’re still human and hopefully reasonable. Questions and conversation can help.<p>2. It’s possible they’re actually just insecure assholes. If so, work to remove them from the team ASAP. There’s no room for assholes.<p>3. If they are a volatile and they’re in a team which mostly benefits from stability, try to find a problem which is substantially challenging and useful to the team which you can hand them.<p>4. If there is no opportunity for that kind of challenging work, they might not be a good fit for the team long-term, and management owes them honesty about their fit.<p>Overall, I hope it works out for your team. Personality and work-style dynamics are tough but I have seen big changes on teams happen, and it’s possible for yours too!<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;randsinrepose.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;stables-and-volatiles&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;randsinrepose.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;stables-and-volatiles&#x2F;</a>