In that case, I'll readily admit I was using "survival" in the hyperbolic sense of "NYC survival skills" than the literal sense of "wilderness survival skills". I'll downgrade it to "crucially significant determiner of success" if that's easier to stomach :)
And I'll again point out that most cog-in-the-machine can't-talk-to-people tech people are successful by the standards of majority of North Americans, let alone the world :)
I never said it was the sole determiner. If you can't talk to people but you can do tech, you can do all right for yourself; if you can talk to people and you can do tech, you can write your own check.
People in tech need this most-- we're way too willing to write off the primary importance that other people have in our lives.
