You Need Brain Surgery

You need brain surgery.

You have two choices for surgeons.

Doctor A is a renowned specialist, one of the world’s best. She has a near-flawless record in performing the type of surgery you need. It is a difficult, dangerous procedure, but if done well and correctly, your chances of full recovery are excellent.

Unfortunately, Doctor A’s bedside manner is as poor as her technical skills are reported to be excellent. Doctor A is known to be nearly incapable of maintaining a conversation on any topic other than that of her technical expertise. She is brusque and unpleasant. She appears to be a very poor manager, not very capable of maintaining finances. Once, Doctor A nearly had to declare bankruptcy, even though she is extremely well compensated. Doctor A is not much of a team player and rather incompetent when it comes to personal relationships. She smells.

Doctor B, in comparison, is a real people person. Doctor B has a terrific bedside manner. She is personable and empathetic. People gravitate toward Doctor B, with her warmth, her energy, her sense of humor. Doctor B is a community leader outside the hospital, married for over $30\text{years}$ with many children and grandchildren.

Doctor B has a reasonably solid reputation in the operating room—quite good, although perhaps not outstanding. There is no discussion or documentation about Doctor B being not completely up to the grade in terms of her technical skills as a surgeon. At least, there is no discussion that you are aware of.

But really, who would say such things anyway, since she is so wonderful to be around?

This comparison between hypothetical Doctors A and B is, of course, an exaggerated, black-and-white description that is thoroughly objectionable.

A similarly exaggerated presentation on this theme is shown on the TV show “House,” which is also ostensibly about doctors. The main character is patterned after Doctor A. Dr. House is a technically brilliant doctor who (usually) saves the patient’s life in each episode. He somehow solves the most difficult medical cases about which his colleagues are largely clueless.

Dr. House is also depicted as an obnoxious, offensive person. He snarls, he insults, he pits doctors in his group against one another. He is an SOB and revels in his obnoxiousness. Other than the fact that he saves lives better than anyone else, Dr. House has no redeeming traits.

“House” is fun to watch, in part because it is amusing to experience the antics of such an asocial jerk from a distance.

But in the real world, we don’t accept a choice between Doctor A and Doctor B. We don’t recognize that such a choice needs to be made in the first place. We demand to have Doctor C, who is both brilliant and empathetic. The discussion of and simplistic comparison between Doctors A and B is objectionable because it implies we have to assign importance and choose between two sets of skills. The comparison is somewhat apples and oranges: technical skills and the nontechnical suite of capabilities, which I’ll label the “soft” skills.

For success, we assume—well, stronger than that—we demand that our professionals have both. We also rationalize that no tradeoffs are required and that there is no contradiction between ensuring success at both technical and soft skills.

But when it comes down to it, is one category more important than the other?

In the life-and-death arena of brain surgery, when it’s your life, which category is more important to you? In the selection of a professional to save your life, which category of skills can you not do without, and which, while still important, fits more in the “nice to have but not essential” slot?

You have a bridge to design. There are two engineers, Engineer A and Engineer B.