YC obviously attracts smart creative people. However, many brilliant people are often arrogant, eccentric, and difficult. How do you effectively deal with so many incredibly smart people?<p>This question is open to non-PG answers. Also, I'd like any recommendations on good books.
How well a work relationship works is up to you, not them. I've learned that people just want to be heard, appreciated and respected. Always look to do those three with everybody. Sure, you will not like everyone. And some will even make you question humanity itself. But have to always remember that people have issues that you may not know. Those issues might be the ones that make them act like that.<p>One example I like to use is from a programmer is used to know a long time ago. He was bullied in school. I mean, really bullied. As a result, he would always be mean to people. Not because he wanted. No. Just due to the fact that he was protecting what little self esteem he had left. I was able to work around that by telling him my own experiences with bullying. He never told me much, but he saw me as a non-threat, and was friendly.
Interesting question. My experience has been that these personality traits have more to do with entitlement than intelligence and that beyond a certain level they drop off. Maturity also helps. This doesn't really help deal with it, other than to suppose that maybe it isn't a big problem. I wonder if other people have the same experience.
IQ smart people can sometimes be emotionally dumb. If you lead a large team, send them on an EI (emotional intelligence) training or encourage them to do on their own (without pointing fingers).<p>Also educating yourself about MBTI could help you deal with different personality types once you learn how to recognize them.