Comment by movpasd

I think an important realisation for me was this: peoples' egos being involved in their arguments, people being irrational, and so on, these are not merely deviations from an ideal rational self that we could reach were we to put enough effort in. It is just how people are. There's a word for it: politics.

Once I started looking for it, I started noticing some of my colleagues' abilities to navigate their way through meetings and disagreements and getting their way without things even becoming arguments, the ability of some people to just put a room at ease or to communicate. And the inability of others to do so.

"Politics" is an unsavory term for somebody with engineering predilections. It evokes backhandedness and self-interest. But you can't actually both be a human being and be "above it". Every sentence, no matter how concrete and technical, is a social act with social ramifications.

I've come to have a lot of respect for people who are actually able to lead and make things happen. It is not a skill I am terribly practiced with.