Strong Opinions Loosely Held Might Be the Worst Idea in Tech
The way I see it, there are two choices:<p>Choice #1 is debating with engineers who have strong but loosely held opinions. This path is the way of &#x27;moving fast and breaking things&#x27;.<p>Choice #2 is debating with engineers who have mild convictions at best.
This is the path of endless bike-shedding and yak-shaving.<p>Option 1 implies that people aren&#x27;t afraid to take leadership of an idea and accept responsibility for its consequences if things go wrong, which is conducive to iterative development and innovation. It implies that the person making the strong case for a decision has done thorough research on the matter and has good reason to be confident in their approach.<p>Option 2 is more of an ego-preservation mechanism where people hedge their opinions to protect themselves from criticism if things go wrong. You don&#x27;t know how they really feel about the matter because everyone is walking on eggshells in order to preserve one another&#x27;s egos. People don&#x27;t want to say anything with conviction and most of the time would rather say nothing at all.<p>Anyone who has ever tried to elicit candid feedback from option 2&#x27;s engineers will know what I mean.