To be a good software engineer, become a French skeptic
Yeah, no (sorry). As a French, I often feel this part is misunderstood pretty badly.<p>The second part is right: it is &quot;why?&quot; first. The &quot;say no first&quot; I think is not a French thing, that&#x27;s the result of the clash between the French work culture (don&#x27;t laugh) and others.<p>We are a bit anti-authority, I think it is hard to deny this trait. We don&#x27;t like being bossed around but that&#x27;s not systematic or unavoidable: we just want to follow orders we respect. So in France, you almost never give orders to someone without explaining the why (and complain about the clueless boss&#x2F;client that made this order a necessity). Give us a good reason, the first answer will be yes.<p>In many cultures (and especially here in Japan) the why is often omitted. Without a why, we are very tempted to just say no. State a good reason or stop wasting people time.<p>I do believe it is a defense mechanism we built against terrible managers.