Humans Suck

Humans are notoriously wasteful and counter-productive. DilbertIsNoJoke

HowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople reveals that "output" efficiency is only half the game. The other half is "kissing up" or "bonding" with superiors (both real or fake bonding counts). This leads to Dilbert-esque wasteful and inefficient decision making and processes. This puts a premium on "social navigation" over raw merit and logic. The work world, and economy at large, would drive a Vulcan crazy.

I will agree that the very top techies can make up for lack of kiss-up skills via their hard-to-find technical skills and abilities, but this is the exception and not the rule. Most of us are Salieri's, not Mozart's (a great movie, highly recommended, even if of questionable accuracy, per below). Thus, most workers have to play the game to move up the ladder.

We also waste vast resources on "ego products" and sexual lures such as sports-cars, big SUV's, large houses, frequently-changing fashion and home decor, make-up, and hair products.

And most meetings could be replaced with email, wikis, and/or teleconferencing, but managers and decision makers prefer to see subtle social cues of participants, and so burn boatloads of jet fuel and/or time.

That's a cynical view of management, and whilst it's not entirely wrong it puts the emphasis in the wrong place. The main reason face-to-face, in-person meetings are encouraged is because (a) they don't suffer the inevitable latencies, inadequacies, and desperately low bandwidth of technology; and (b) humans simply get along better in person. On a Wiki or Web forum, and sometimes even in a series of teleconferences, petty differences flourish and grow into animosities. In person, humans tend to put aside their differences and get along -- especially if they aren't kept together too frequently. I suspect it has a lot to do with the primal influence of food-sharing and novel pheromones in tribal-visit situations.

I don't know, I've been in some nasty meetings and have heard plenty of stories about others'. Some meetings are good, but many are a waste of time, especially in terms of travel and scheduling. They are a tool that can easily be misused.

Well, yes. I've been in some bad meetings too. The worst ones involved no food and people who knew each other too well.

Get off the wiki and try a MUD.

Make me, Human!

Strictly speaking, the movie (and the story on which it is based) are slanderous on poor Salieri. He was actually quite a kind man, was on friendly terms with Mozart, and gave music lessons for free to all except the very rich. The accusations in that movie are unjustified, though as a story the movie is a good one.

Ironically, the (slanderous) movie increased the listening of his music (an estimation on my part). He was a no-name before (after his time), now people are curious and realize his music is not really that bad. It's like Beatles fans discovering The Who after a band p/r scuffle: they are not nearly as talented and versatile as the Beatles by most accounts, but nevertheless carved out a nice little niche sound.

As they say in Hollywood (AKA "Hollyweird"): bad publicity is better than no publicity, and sometimes more profitable than good publicity.

[Please stop messing with the apostrophes. It may not be grammatically correct, but it improves readability, and I value readability over grammatical purity.]

Misanthropy? I don't know if there is or can be a perfect species. "Perfect" is relative anyhow. Grittiness may be a survive advantage; a fully honest civilization or species would be easy pickings for cosmic con-artists because they'd have no experience against such. Some degree of chaos may be necessary for civilization and organizational techniques in general in the longer run. Organization and chaos may dance together in a Yin-Yang kind of way. Still, an organization that finds a way to harness the benefits of order and planning without creating too many intentional side-effects may prosper more than one that doesn't. The trick is finding and testing such techniques, though.

The rare humans that don't suck often display these characteristics:

Good listeners - They value the input and opinion of others. They are genuinely curious about other people's opinions.
Good communicators - They value and hone the skill of communicating.
Prefer team success over lone credit - They seem to have a certain shyness about them such that they would rather their team get credit for good work rather than themselves, and thus their work tends to not be "ego driven". Rising with the team seems their primary motivation.
Choose and prepare their battles carefully - Don't obsess on small things. They are only firm about issues they feel really matter. They gain credibility by not calling wolf on unimportant issues. They also prepare their description and justification of their complaint so it's ready and clear, and will do their homework on it first.
Balance their time - They are careful about not over-doing X such that Y gets under-served.
Move on - If others don't buy in to their complaint or judgement, they don't hold grudges and move on. They know that team harmony sometimes trumps being right.
They don't retaliate or grow rude except when making a stand really matters (see above re "choosing battles carefully").
They are firm when it actually matters such that they they don't get a reputation for being "soft" or being a "yes-man". By historically picking their battles carefully (above), they earn respect. People will say, "Since Mr./Mrs. X is firm about this issue, it MUST really mean something".
Apologize if they made a mistake or inadvertently offended somebody, and attempt to remedy it. If you knock somebody's drink over, don't say "I'm sorry" and then run off; offer to buy them a replacement drink. It may even be partly the other person's fault for not paying attention etc.
Avoid favoritism - They want the entire team to be "on board". They are not comfortable isolating somebody or letting them stay isolated, and make an effort to "spread the wealth".
Predictable - They are not moody; you know what you are going to get. They are focused, patient, and fair.

"The more I know about people, the better I like my dogs." -Mark Twain