Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This article seems more related to social media, but my experience with toxic positivity at some former workplaces took the form of "Our startup is the best! We're so much better than all our competitors. Everything they do is wrong, and we do everything better!", which is a fine attitude to have in general, until its objectively not true, and I'm afraid to even say anything for fear of being a "hater".

A "Salesperson" attitude is great when talking to the public or customers, but when your employees hear one thing from you and see the opposite happening, it doesn't exactly lend you credibility.

Fortunately, where I work now the leadership is much more objectively-minded. It probably helps we're building enterprise products and not pushing social-media hype.




While working in a startup for several years I became fairly practiced at running everything our CEO said through an internal BS meter and have found it incredibly useful in every workplace since then.

The spectrum is 'true', 'optimistic', 'possibly true', 'not quite', 'probably lying', 'lying', 'lying to themselves'. During any company meeting I would keep a mental tally of how each statement measured up and used that to decide when I should leave.


'lying to themselves'

In my twenties, I concluded that most people lying to me were actually lying to themselves. They weren't trying to make my life harder or deceive me per se. It was simply not possible to state the truth to someone else and keep lying to themselves.

It made social BS vastly easier for me to cope with.


An excellent viewpoint, and one that I've found value in as well.


I honestly find that this form of complementing to be toxic in general. I've heard too often "Other people are <insert negative trait>, but you are <insert positive trait>!" I generally appreciate the complement part when a comment like this is directed towards me, but the comparison to other people is not necessary. You don't need to put others down to build others up.


Silicon Valley in general has mandated positivity to the point that if you ware honest about anything, you are labeled "negative" and shunned.


As someone outside of SV, I too have heard that generalization. Can anyone with varied experience inside SV confirm or deny?


"Bioware Magic"




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: