Why is that only a problem if you start a sentence with 'Yes' ?

Cynics always have scapegoats. It's always everyone else's fault. Dumb colleagues, idiotic managers, stupid customers. Just remember you control your situation and how those around you interact with you.

The 'Yes, if' thing is one of the major reasons I love startups.

Because they want to hear yes. So, they will keep looking for it even if you start with no.

So start with "If..." and finish with "...then yes!"

This is my favorite comment in the thread :)

That... sounds like it might actually work.

Then there are MUCH bigger problems than the first word anyways.

This kind of reply has become such a meme. Of course, it's always some "bigger" problem that are at the heart of disfunction. The problem is the _people_ who are often at the heart of such disfunction are usually the ones that judge their "reports" by how often they say "no, because" vs. "yes, if", typically because of some quote they read paraphrased in some internet discussion.

We typically call this middle management.

Regardless I'm not really interested in the blame game on who's responsible management or engineering. Both are irrelevant to this discussion. "Can" or "can't", as the article discusses, is an issue of leadership in a business. If it isn't there, it isn't going to matter whether the engineer says "how high?" whenever their asked to jump.