[fenomas]

Question of intent, surely? If someone is "skewering mediocrity" because it's an effective way to help the person they're trying to help, then great. But if they keep doing it even when it's having the opposite effect, then clearly they're just stroking their own ego and being toxic.

It reminds me, I've often read accounts that Steve Jobs used to yell at his employees because drove them to excellence. But if you think about it, it's more parsimonious to assume that he yelled at people because he was short-tempered, and the yelling sometimes coincidentally drove people to excellence.