Kinda off topic but other side of the coin, befriending the asshole:
At my first job there was this grizzly old engineer who was known for being pretty surly, but knew the code base almost as if by memory, and the behavior of the code. He was bothered by anything and everything and really just wanted to run out the clock and go home and work in his wood shop.
I was in support and nobody wanted to go to him for help, but man you had to sometimes. I read something about guys like that being really particular about things so I just made a long list of what he was annoyed that people didn't bring him (information wise) and how they brought it to him when people or I did go to him.
Most importantly I'd make a point that he would see that I brought him information (about customer problems) based on his past feedback.
Eventually over the course of months he warmed to me and I could get his help bringing him virtually nothing and he wouldn't complain. Dude was still annoyed for not getting a mountain of information from other techs, but not so much me. People there for 10 years would get a "Have Mark look at it first." talk from him... I had been there for 9 months.
For him it was about getting to know people and trust that they would bother to get him what he needed, once you proved that, he didn't so much care.
> At my first job there was this grizzly old engineer who was known for being pretty surly
There is a VAST difference between "surly" and "asshole".
"Surly" is the result of dealing with legions of idiots for 30+ years. Someone who demonstrates "not-an-idiot" is likely to find the "surly" person quite reasonable and trustworthy.
"Asshole" is someone who engages in behaviors to your detriment and simply CANNOT be trusted. You either need to avoid these people or actively destroy them before they get rolling.
Unfortunately, it seems that standard corporate politics is unable to distinguish between the two.
You're confusing "asshole" with "brilliant jerk"[0]. The latter is high maintanance and finnicky, but worth it if you can keep them in their high-performance operating regime. The former are toxic parasites that are actively trying to screw you. TFA is talking about the "asshole" group specifically.
0: Or at least that's the terms I've seen used on HN for those archtypes; obviously Y[vocabulary]MV
I don't think he is an asshole but rather a not very social person. He can't deal too much with people. (the wood shop thing) But once you figured out how to become his friend, it didn't bother him to help you out.
If you go by the dictionary, "grizzled" and "grizzly" both have the same meaning; having grey hair.
In common use, though, "grizzled" is generally used to imply "old" or even "unkempt", and "grizzly" is generally used to imply "bad-tempered" (probably alluding to the behaviour of the "grizzly bear")
..in this case, according to the story, either word would apply!
At my first job there was this grizzly old engineer who was known for being pretty surly, but knew the code base almost as if by memory, and the behavior of the code. He was bothered by anything and everything and really just wanted to run out the clock and go home and work in his wood shop.
I was in support and nobody wanted to go to him for help, but man you had to sometimes. I read something about guys like that being really particular about things so I just made a long list of what he was annoyed that people didn't bring him (information wise) and how they brought it to him when people or I did go to him.
Most importantly I'd make a point that he would see that I brought him information (about customer problems) based on his past feedback.
Eventually over the course of months he warmed to me and I could get his help bringing him virtually nothing and he wouldn't complain. Dude was still annoyed for not getting a mountain of information from other techs, but not so much me. People there for 10 years would get a "Have Mark look at it first." talk from him... I had been there for 9 months.
For him it was about getting to know people and trust that they would bother to get him what he needed, once you proved that, he didn't so much care.