Thank you for this post. This actually resonated with me personally, because I felt like you were describing me in high school. I knew I was smart, I could ace tests easily without studying - and I didnt see the point in trying. And like you have said, I did not know anything about soft skills. No one ever talks about things like this.<p>I feel like there is a disparity between the curriculum in schools and the skills necessary to be prepared for "the real world" and by-in-large a lot of this knowledge is just assumed. Everything from learning HOW to study (and not just what you need to study to pass tests) to real world "skills" like balancing a budget. But hey, if you've taken the mandatory economics class, you know what bear and bull markets are so you should be set for life. Ah, but I digress.<p>Anyway, I for one, would love to read this your book. However, I cant see very many teenagers looking in the self-help section to pick up a book that will help them. While I completely agree that teenagers need to be made aware of, what I would call, "life lessons", a self help book might not be the best approach to getting the material out there.
"With the exception of the STEM fields, I would argue that soft skills actually are more important than how smart you are."<p>So you're saying "apart from fields where you have to be smart, it doesn't matter if you're smart"?
If the thesis is, 'people need soft skills to get and succeed at their jobs', then wouldn't the article serve that thesis by articulating how one could obtain those skills? Instead, we have a citation of Kanye West, and as a result, the tone of the article is fairly anti-intellectual.<p>For high school students looking to develop soft skills:
<a href="http://bit.ly/1b60sBm" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/1b60sBm</a>
<a href="http://bit.ly/13Rjiay" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/13Rjiay</a>
<a href="http://abt.cm/14nWouk" rel="nofollow">http://abt.cm/14nWouk</a>
I found the quoted verse at the top so wrong, I had to create a throwaway to comment.<p>You're so smart, you're studying, you're 52, and when you die, you'll have nothing to clutch in your grave but your degrees.<p>Being 52 and in school is fucking awesome. You're old, you're not doing it because it's making you money. You're doing it for the pursuit of knowledge. You're doing it to learn from the fruits of labor of all that have come before you. You might make another discovery. You might not. But at this point, uncovering new things for its own sake is just fucking awesome.<p>But, says Kanye, but, says the rich and famous role model of yours: I'm smooth, I hustle, and when I die, I'm hugging my platinums in my grave. Maybe I'll even have a statue of me on my tombstone.<p>Maybe there's a subtext that I'm not getting. Maybe this is an alcoholic 52 year old who decided on a whim that he's gonna get smarter and somehow that's going to make him rich, and that's what West is talking about. But that's not what you're quoting. What you're quoting is a reflecting of your acknowledgement of that belief.<p>You're smart. Soft skills are important. Know what, I'm smart too, and I have soft skills, and I find the mentality conveyed in those verses pure, culture-destroying <i>toxic</i>. Maybe you're after hustle... But hustle is not "soft skills".
> The number one way to ace an interview is to get the other person to like you.<p>Anecdotal evidence: I'm a college student and got my software engineering internship this summer because, according to the recruiter, I was better at communicating and more personable than the other candidates. Among people in my major (CS), I would say I'm pretty average in terms of intellect, so I actively work at these sorts of 'soft' skills to give myself some advantage.
Makes it sound as if those things were mutually exclusive. They are not.<p>I don't like the attitude of this article. Good soft skills will not compensate lack of smartness. This might not appear in a job interview (although good interviewers will notice), but it definately will later on.<p>Thus: also read books.
Most people who ace tests without studying are usually just good auditory learners.In a school situation where classroom attendance is mandatory,they excel because it hones their style.Visual learners,the bookworms on the other hand ,endure the classes until after school when they can start taking in knowledge the best way they know how:by reading.<p>The first group always assumes they are smarter, which is not necessarily true.High IQ people belong to both groups.
The problem with articles like this is that it inspires precisely the wrong reaction. The best way to develop "soft skills" of the sort that matter is to stop caring about developing "soft skills" and to be genuine and be in touch with who they are internally. Don't worry about presenting yourself - care about who you are inside and seek to present it genuinely. Social fluence comes naturally when you stop pretending.