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0 pointsmavelikara5y ago0 comments

Agreed. But the balanced people are the least vocal. As Bertrand Russel noted:

  "The whole problem with the world is that fools and 
  fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and 
  wiser people so full of doubts."

I am someone who moved from a programer role into management. My appeal to the balanced senior engineers is to speak up more. We don't have to swing as much as economists, enough to frustrate President Truman to say:

  "Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists 
  say 'on hand...', then 'but on the other..."

But we can bring more nuance into discussions - especially calling out those among us with polar positions.

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2 comments · 2 top-level

cosmodisk5y ago

As a manager, you need to find a way to pull information from people: with some it's a team meeting,with others it's over a meal during the lunch,etc. I even do this sometimes during the management meetings,when I see people clearly not quite happy about something but reluctant to speak,so I ask them directly what's on their mind and that's often enough for them to tell way more than you could have gotten by just expecting for them to speak up.

pdimitar5y ago

All of that is sadly true and it's a fundamental problem with humanity. I'd say that the only solution I am seeing is that the managers must proactively shut down the extremists early and hard.

If you demonstrate that you will not submit to extremists, I've found that a good chunk of the more balanced people are then encouraged to speak up.

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TL;DR: Silence the bad and loud voices, and the wiser and quieter voices will start speaking.

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