I disagree, I think timr is correct, and despite him being criticized for poor socialization, he is in fact picking up the subtle but obvious social and language cues that you and dmor either fail to notice or choose to ignore.
This is clearly a compare and contrast piece. He is contrasting what he took from the meeting with what the Developer CEO took from the meeting, with a heavy implication that those benefits were exclusive to each other. He says it more or less explicitly:
"I suspect in his mind the benefit of meeting was directly related to his perception of the quality of data in my answers."
Also look at the language construct used:
"Whereas he based the value of the meeting on the quality of the data I focus on how much I think I got an accurate snapshot of how the person thinks and operates."
The google definition of 'whereas' is "In contrast or comparison with the fact that.".
To possibly overthink social cues, I think that timr wrote a true but slightly condescending response to a slightly condescending article. Since engineers commonly are condescending to sales people, and since HN is filled with contrarians, someone felt obligated to stick up for the sales guy.
>since HN is filled with contrarians, someone felt obligated
>to stick up for the sales guy
haha.. nice touch
but going back to the article, look like a description from a meeting with a alien creature from another planet, and a sociological perspective of the meeting with this new race coming to the town of the bosses.. The Nerd Ceo
Is natural that the old school yuppie feel threatened by this new specie of ceo.. this new species are the one who will replace them in a near future..
Of course the tech ceo will need to suck the knowledge from the generation that were in the battle front.. thats his nature.. he is a hacker, he learn fast, he thinks fast..
this is not just about different points of view.. this is a generational clash.. two different generations meeting each other while they are all in the game..
this is the dawn of the salesman, and the rise of the geeks
of course they are all afraid, they should be :)
Usually a large part of a ceo's job is human interaction. While it's not strictly necessary to have strong social skills to be a CEO, it sure is helpful.
This is clearly a compare and contrast piece. He is contrasting what he took from the meeting with what the Developer CEO took from the meeting, with a heavy implication that those benefits were exclusive to each other. He says it more or less explicitly:
"I suspect in his mind the benefit of meeting was directly related to his perception of the quality of data in my answers."
Also look at the language construct used:
"Whereas he based the value of the meeting on the quality of the data I focus on how much I think I got an accurate snapshot of how the person thinks and operates."
The google definition of 'whereas' is "In contrast or comparison with the fact that.".
To possibly overthink social cues, I think that timr wrote a true but slightly condescending response to a slightly condescending article. Since engineers commonly are condescending to sales people, and since HN is filled with contrarians, someone felt obligated to stick up for the sales guy.