> I really dislike all of this “reading between the lines” aren’t Americans supposed to be direct? You're talking about a culture in which the standard greetin

> I really dislike all of this “reading between the lines” aren’t Americans supposed to be direct? You're talking about a culture in which the standard greeting is "How are you?", and the standard response to said greeting is, "I'm fine!" - even when you're obviously not fine. So, no, it's very much not direct. If you want to see what a "direct" software engineering culture looks like, look at Eastern Europe. There, people will routinely say things like "this code is crap", and no-one (including the author of said code!) bats an eye at it because it's supposed to be taken at face value, not as an insult.