| I guess this rather contradicts what I wrote in my comment to OP, but I can chime in. I once bit off waaaay more than I could chew, basically taking on a tech lead role on a large project — a project that in retrospect I wasn't even qualified to be on at all. The thing is, nobody ever really called me on it, even after repeated failures to hit deadlines, regular detours down blind alleys, etc. things finally came to a head and I quitfired with some significant bad blood for a while. I'd say it was a mixture of causes, but the biggest IMO was Dunning-Kruger all around: on my part, with the nontechnical project owner, and with other developers on the team. There was a lot of motivated reasoning and sunk-cost thinking going on of course. We just kept digging the hole. So to answer your question, yeah I think delusion can easily carry you down this path. That said: Brian is clearly passing off others work as his own, the attempt to deceive seems blatant, etc. There's a difference between delusion and dishonesty. The failed project I led was a very expensive learning experience for several people, but lessons were learned. I'm not sure that's as likely to happen to someone who shows bad faith from the start. |