Maybe you're wondering whether it's possible to mostly ignore other people. Many science and engineering types, and some other people too, figure that they are smart enough to solve problems on their own and having to deal with other people is a distraction and just slows them down. They don't want to deal with other humans; just give them a coding problem and a computer and leave them alone.
My friend Sheldon gave me a good perspective on this. He felt this way when he was in college. Admittedly, he really was a smart guy and having to deal with other people was frustrating and time-consuming. But a professor of his gave him some good advice: "Sheldon," he explained, "let's assume for a moment that you are a smart person. In fact, let's assume that you are the smartest person alive and that you can solve any problem faster than anyone else. The problem is that there is only one of you, so your contribution is going to be limited to the number of hours you can stay awake. On the other hand, if you can work with a team of people, you can do much bigger things and have a much bigger impact."
Now of course this is true as long as the team works well together and everyone is making a positive contribution, but you get the point. Sheldon took this advice to heart and ended up becoming a really good manager and was able to use his vast technical knowledge plus his ability to work with people to achieve significant results (like electronic working papers and automated fraud detection for my favorite accounting firm).
So unless you're a painter or a poet, you're going to be working with other people. Let's figure out how to get along with all those folks around you.
