One of my biggest gripes with the Bay Area tech scene is that its social norms are the opposite of those espoused in this article. > Perhaps it is also a testa

One of my biggest gripes with the Bay Area tech scene is that its social norms are the opposite of those espoused in this article. > Perhaps it is also a testament to our incredibly deeply social nature that the highest praise of a man might in fact not be his prowess and ability to survive on an animal level, his ability to kill or run or calculate, but rather his ability to speak, and to do so in a way which accurately reflects the disposition of his soul, even if doing so risks the alienation of the person he speaks to or incurs obligations on himself which might be difficult to fulfill Can we now acknowledge the harm the Bay Area communication style has done to our industry? This performative "kindness" cant you're supposed to adopt, this kayfabe of epistemic uncertainty, this "shit sandwich" feedback style, the obfuscation of orders as questions and of questions as musings --- it's exhausting. It's dishonest. It gets in the way of making good technology. It also privileges a certain in-group undeservedly. The San Francisco Performative Niceness Lilt functions as a shibboleth. It comes more naturally to some than others, especially those who grew up far from Stanford's arches and palm trees. Much of the world, and much of the West, rewards a communication style much more in line with this "men who mean just what they say" essay, and it's about time the tech industry stop rewarding indirection-based word games.