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A comment on A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge team laid off). Parent comment

Re:A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge... by madrox on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @05:35PM (#33808923)
We're talking about cynicism and not criticism, correct? In my experience, cynicism is unproductive at best and anti-productive at worst. Criticism, of course, is valuable and healthy.

Cynicism is a good and healthy thing to share with colleagues over a beer, but when you're on the clock will kill morale. Arguably dumping loads of money on a vaporware moonshot is also a morale killer, but sniping at it in meetings helps no one.

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Re:A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge... by hobs on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @05:40PM (#33808992)
Excessive cynicism in the face of actual positive change is bad, however when you have no power to change something, you resort to cynicism. If your employees feel no power to express themselves over your bad decisions, you've built a truly toxic system.
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Re:A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge... by projectazorian on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @06:49PM (#33809823)
The tone comes from the top. If criticizing the CEO’s strategy is prohibited as “cynicism,” then lower level leaders throughout the company will take that as license to prohibit criticism of their own ideas. And often that type of criticism is far more productive.
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Re:A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge... by Aeolun on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @07:16PM (#33810199)
If people are cynical in the face of positive change then that’s only because they have experience with previous examples of ‘positive change’ that turned out to not be positive after all.
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Re:A long expected update (probablistic programming langauge... by projectazorian on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @06:46PM (#33809785)
It’s easy for bad leaders to redefine legitimate criticism as cynicism. When I worked for a company with a similar culture I saw this happen all the time.
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