When you need a large organization to work in concert and execute with precision on an enormous number of tasks, you simply don’t have time to explore every nook and cranny of every issue in every conversation. So my discursiveness—which I still like to think of as curiosity—could be extremely disadvantageous. I learned to counterprogram the culture against my inclinations in three ways: I surrounded myself with people who had the opposite personality trait. They wanted to finish the conversation as soon as possible and move on to the next thing. I made rules to help manage myself. If a
...more
