But the author of the linked post clearly says that the “sandwich eating skill” worked against these executives. Their firm was passed over—and the strong suggestion is that their impeccable table manners were a not-insignificant part of the reason! The post is about the lack of importance of “sandwich eating skill”!
But the author of the linked post clearly says that the “sandwich eating skill” worked against these executives. Their firm was passed over—and the strong suggestion is that their impeccable table manners were a not-insignificant part of the reason! The post is about the lack of importance of “sandwich eating skill”!
Shouldn’t this be phrased “the importance of ‘lack of sandwich eating skill?’”
Sure, that too. It’s a set of complementary points:
Sandwich eating skill is not important, and…
Sandwich eating skill trades off against important things, which means…
If you’ve optimized for it, you must have neglected important things, which means that…
Unusually high sandwich eating skill is a signal of sub-optimal important skills, which suggests that…
You should avoid having unusually high sandwich eating skill, lest you avoid sending an undesirable signal.
see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling .