Maybe we can use a riddle here? Ask someone "will you tell a lie if I ask you a yes no question?"

(I think I screwed up but you get the idea!)

Imagine asking interview questions only in this manner.

That would probably be equally evil and effective.

"Tell me about a time you failed" is the tech interview equivalent of "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Yeah. Fortunately it's enough to tell a story from your junior years to pass this one.

The other person being honest would have helped much more.

This isn't an honesty thing. Many cultures (both in terms of social culture and work culture) have a strong aversion to saying no. Some languages barely have a word for it.

Even when those aren't issues yes/no questions rarely have the precision that you want, often you can phrase a question to seem like it only has a binary answer, but the real answer is way more complicated. Basic project management principles come into play here. As other posters have commented, asking what someone will be working on first, setting up tracking tasks etc.

If you ask an American "How are you?", they will respond "Fine, how are you?".

If you ask a German "How are you?", they will tell you they caught a flu and they bumped their toe on the way to the bathroom.

As a German, it's hard work for me to respond appropriately to the American question. But I understand that I don't blame the American for being dishonest.

It's even harder for me to work with the Indian "yes", but I understand they don't mean to be dishonest.

One person's lie is another person's cultural expectation.

It's ironic you're lamenting Indian cultural inflexibility, while simultaneously imposing your own by refusing to simply reword a question.

Engineers get results with the world they're given, not the world they wish they had.

No apology needed. :)

We each have a right to our own perspectives on the world.

> Engineers get results with the world they're given, not the world they wish they had.

Evidence I see points to better engineering results from countries that don’t “culturally” lie.

With anectdata, yes.

Lying is a big part of most of the world's cultures. The northern Europeans are unique in that they have such an aversion to it.

I can't help you here.

I'm just a lowly eastern-European contractor banking on real estate prices in Silicon Valley remaining ridiculous on one side, and Indian contractors[0] remaining unreliable on the other.

[0] Those of them who have lower rates of course. Reliable Indian contractors have proper rates - and good for them.

That is your problem: You have not taken the time to understand other cultures.

You believe they are not being honest but they ARE!!

If they can not do the work, they tell you, but in their own language, not directly but in subtle ways.

They are expressing it, and in their mind you understand them, because they are actually saying it. It is just that you are deaf to their language, you are not looking to the nuances, and just ignore those signals they are emitting.

Then comes the blaming and the pointing fingers.

They are a service provider and we are their customers, it's up to them to adapt to our needs and adapt to our culture.