i agree, however, because ive seen people unironically argue otherwise, i’d expand it a little: work with people who are intelligent enough to give constructive criticism.

i have more than enough experience building teams to know with confidence that if alice is naive enough to tell bob, mallory and eve they are stupid—no matter alice’s skill level—the majority of time her team will not perform as well as the other team where david has learned how to give constructive criticism.

criticism is one of the key mechanisms a team needs, but someone skilled at delivering that criticism is every bit as valuable as the unicorn.