don't lie to your devs
daily
White lies are fine sometimes… but not when you’re building software.
I had an interesting conversation today in which I defended white lies.
My argument was that sometimes, people know the truth already and want you to lie to them. It’s not really a lie, it’s an affirmation that you don’t care about the truth as much as you care about them.
“Do I look tired?”
“Am I being annoying?”
“Does this work like you expected?”
That last one is not like the others. Even if you think it will hurt your dev’s feelings or bruise their ego, there is no benefit to softening the blow.
Don’t be an asshole about it - “no, and I don’t understand why you did it this way.”
Just correct them - “I was expecting it to do X.”
Don’t talk about them at all, only the implementation. Separate the person from the product.
White lies can protect people, but it will always hurt products. The truth can hurt people, but it will always benefit products.