Agreed, I'm always surprised to see comments like the one you're replying to, and how often they're upvoted. I suppose HN tends to attract a slice of humanity that tends to appreciate casual social interaction a little less, even when compared to the tech sector as a whole. But in my experience transitioning from a very awkward asocial teenager (who would have shared such a view) to a slightly less awkward adult, I've come to really appreciate the trust and camaraderie you can develop even in the workplace setting. After all, humans have evolved to be social creatures and it's not random happenstance. There's tremendous value in being able to really know your teammates, to be able to rely on them, and to have them also be able to trust and rely on you in return. And a lot of that flows from basic social interactions that could be described as "chit chat."
Curious, do you have meaningful hobbies and activities outside of work? I often find that people who are so keen on social interaction at work don't have other things they are passionate about.
I am not saying I hate social interaction. If I had to chose between being locked in my basement and not seeing anyone and going to the office, I would chose the office. However, if the choice is between more time and freedom outside of work vs more in office interactions, then I chose the former.
Again though, if you are the type of person that highly values that in-office camaraderie, you are free to join a coworking space and get that. You can still commute and ask your deskmate how your day went.
Im not like that though - I like to wake up early, get my work done, and spend my afternoons rock climbing with a different group of people who are my close friends. The value I get out of this is way higher than building (often) superficial relationships with my coworkers.
Thats the nice thing about working remotley - you can pick what you do with your time. Forcing everyone to indulge in office socialization just because some people enjoy it is a disservice to those who don't.
Some of my best friends are former coworkers. Given that we work at the same place on the same problems, there's a really good chance that at least some of us share the same interests outside of work.
My family likes to joke that they can tell who my former coworkers are or online friends because they call me jedberg instead of Jeremy.
100%. Not only does strengthening social bonds with your coworkers make work more enjoyable it also makes the work product better. People that have the mentality like they're just a robot cranking out work units do worse work and they make their teammates worse. In many teams a moderately skilled engineer with very high social IQ is worth a lot more than another technically talented engineer with poor social IQ.
But it has an impact on your team's ability to deliver value over the long term. Social bonding increases generally increases trust and trust increases willingness to communicate. If I've had multiple positive social experiences with you over time (IE chit-chat), then I'll be more willing to communicate with you about technical issues as well. If you make me uncomfortable and nervous socially, I'm going to wait longer to bring up a possible integration issue or requirements conflict. Over time that is WAY worse then slower deliver of features in isolation.
Different projects and organizations vary, but I've been on teams where a "brillant" but anti-social person left (or was ejected) and seen overall throughput for the team shoot up. And I've seen people brand new to coding (and without much skill in it) still deliver value rapidly because they are relentless communicators. I've stopped valuing the former and started valuing the later.
