There is also no reason why Bob can&#x27;t adapt his communication to whoever is saying &quot;your foo implementation sucks&quot;.<p><i>Culture</i> is a set of prevailing norms about which group of people are the ones who should adapt. In some cultures it&#x27;s Fred who adapts, in others it&#x27;s Bob.<p>Let me emphasize that I&#x27;m not advocating that one culture is superior. Bridgewater is a highly successful &quot;you suck here&#x27;s why&quot; culture, Shutterstock is a highly successful &quot;lets all think about feelings&quot; culture (to name two NY companies known for culture), and I don&#x27;t think either would be improved by making them more like the other.<p>I&#x27;d just be far more willing to work at Bridgewater (at least if they opened a NYC office - who wants to go to CT) than at Shutterstock.<p><i>And I&#x27;m not sure why you find the latter so unpleasant.</i><p>I find it to be an exercise which saps my mental energy and distracts me from increasing shareholder value. The less I think about feelings, the more I&#x27;m thinking about getting more sales for my customers.<p>I&#x27;m not sure why some people find open office plans so unpleasant. But I accept that some people really don&#x27;t like them and I have no problem if companies choose private offices to appeal to those people.