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David Sasaki's avatar

Could there be a spectrum between “people people” and “ideas people”? I can think of “people people” who mostly talk about reality TV, gossip, and social media — human connection for its own sake. And I can think of “ideas people” who are so consumed by abstraction that they dissociate from their own values, motivations, even their bodies, in service of pure cognition.

I’m drawn to those who live in the middle. The “people people” — like you — who are drawn to ideas people, but want to understand how ideas connect to core values, motivations, and psyches. And the “ideas people” who stay curious about how upbringing, culture, and social environments shape our intellectual passions and biases.

In the workplace (back when I worked in one), I found the people/ideas divide to be awkwardly gendered. Many of my female colleagues would preemptively say they weren’t interested in “competing to have the best ideas,” as if discussing ideas were inherently adversarial or competitive. I sensed an insecurity with the idea space itself. Meanwhile, many of my male colleagues dismissed anything involving self-awareness — personality types, team dynamics — as a waste of time, revealing their insecurity with the people space.

I tried, carefully, to encourage women to engage more with ideas and men to stay open to emotional intelligence — but it was fragile territory to discuss.

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Garrett Smith's avatar

Hi Molly, I am an ideas person. Like you I observe. When talking with others, however, I more so listen for what their thinking. Let's look at the times on the app you mentioned through the design thinking lens. Some steps in design thinking are for a people person others are for an idea person. The example that comes to mind is empathizing with a customer or in your case finding something you admire. Then in the next step of design the task is to generate ideas. This involves writing code, or for you, writing about what you found on an app.

Design thinking is a non-linear process. Ideas are only useful once acted on with other people. How about conveying ideas to people? I think a people person is a people person until someone has an idea about a problem that relates to a pain point or data environment. Then they get an idea that is backed by evidence. That is what the VC world is all about.

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