I've found that theres a certain "turning off your brain" that has to occur to be socially successful. Most technically inclined people have a habit of using their brains a lot. Not that it's totally impossible, but it's hard. I'm a socially awkward technology person. When the moon is aligned properly, I can function fairly normally in social situations, but most of time I over-think too much and come off as weird.
"Turning off your brain" is a very condescending way to refer to people with skills you don't possess or understand.
(To borrow terminology from "Thinking, Fast and Slow"):
In my experience, more socially-inclined people are able to rely easily on System 1 -- whereas the more awkward ("engineer" types) attempt to engage System 2 continually, and thus the experience of talking with them often feels effortful and lacking in "flow."
"Turning off your brain" sounds like a good summary of that. I don't think one need a particular "skill" to act stereotypically, subconsciously, emotionaly, automatically, at least... If one is inhibited and thinking too much, just give it some wine.
I'd consider it a pretty safe bet that most people who frequent HN are at least superficially familiar with the material. This is from the first result for a relevant Google query:
In the book's first section, Kahneman describes the two different ways the brain forms thoughts:
System 1: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, subconscious
System 2: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious
