I think you are describing is what the radical candor crowd would call “ruinous empathy”, ie lying to avoid hurting their feelings. There is a difference thoug

I think you are describing is what the radical candor crowd would call “ruinous empathy”, ie lying to avoid hurting their feelings. There is a difference though between a conversation among friends and a founder seeking advice from a mentor. Telling a friend that their startup is dumb won’t stop them from seeing the idea through anyway, so I think the article is questioning what one hopes to accomplish by being generally negative.