How to Tell the Truth
So, I find this article vapid. It basically says -Tell the truth, but assign your own meaning to it-. However, it&#x27;s been my experience in tech that this is exact behavior a major, major problem at the companies I&#x27;ve worked for.<p>Most startups I worked at insisted they were saving the world in one way or another. The C level probably patted themselves on the back pretty hard for coming up with such an inspiring interpretation. But within a year, it always rung false (based on their actions being entirely inconsistent). This made me trust them less than if they had simply said &quot;We&#x27;re in this to make money. We&#x27;re a company, that&#x27;s what we do,&quot; which, in my opinion, is totally okay to admit.<p>For example:<p>- Do not call yourself a family if you have ever let somebody go within 3 months of hiring them. Would your literal family kick you out because they weren&#x27;t seeing an ROI in 3 months or because you were difficult?<p>- Do not say your mission is to empower one group or another if your actions are not truly in that group&#x27;s best interest. E.g. giving them credit cards when they&#x27;re already in debt.<p>- Do not imply that your &quot;door is always open&quot; unless you have the willingness and time to hear some of the ways your company is actually fucked up and act on them.<p>- Do not suggest employees will get rich when you damn well how unlikely it is.<p>- Do not use bullshit euphemisms all the time, such as a massively failing manager being &quot;promoted&quot; to a position with no authority. What your actions are doing is saying &quot;We work in a class system where you can&#x27;t be fired once you&#x27;re at a certain level&quot;<p>- Do not imply you&#x27;re a meritocracy. Your company isn&#x27;t, it&#x27;s a handful of narcissistic wealthy people at the top surrounded by sycophantic top-level-managers with actual laborers 3 or more levels down. The idea that individuals can be rated on traits and promoted to &quot;levels&quot; is a laughable oversimplification to anybody who thinks about it.<p>- Do not imply most of your employees will ever be promoted if you know most won&#x27;t.