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Actually, I subtly said "get the hell out of the way if you don't think it'll work," not warm and fuzzy smarminess. But it's much easier for you to mock if you read warm and fuzzies out of it, and I get that.

What I said, reworded, was the people who sit on the sidelines of anything and tell you, while you are trying something, that it won't work are among the worst people in the profession. I didn't say believe harder. I don't give a damn what you believe and don't need you reminding me, constantly, that my project has a chance of failure. Keep it to yourself or get on board. That's my point.

I am not a kind person, so that you'd ascribe feel-good nonsense to me is downright hilarious. I can handle it but a lot of people can't, and it's really, really tiring to keep a team from becoming demoralized when there's a naysayer popcorn gallery in every thread and watercooler discussion.



The naysayers do us all a valuable service. They remind us that hope, dreams, and belief do not solve engineering problems.

You know what demoralizes a team like nothing else? And endless litany of projects that failed because nobody wanted to listen to the people pointing out problems.


You know what demoralizes a team EXACTLY like that?

When people on the team think they are pointing out problems, but are doing so without support, by simply saying "That won't work" instead of "That won't work because of ...".

This does nothing to further a project and leaves the burden of proof for a working solution on the person who proposed the solution in the first place, and the way for them to prove their solution is to continue working on it, with no actionable feedback to revise their project on.




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