[saurik]

This works on "newbies" until they realize what's going on and then they learn to see through it and begin to resent not only this "trick" but also the people who attempt to use it, which maybe works if you keep churning through people--and this is an industry with enough new blood being injected constantly that maybe that even feels "sustainable"--but I still feel like the people who do it should be judged harshly.

[borski]

This is a pretty cynical view. It's not actually a bad thing to make folks feel like they have a sense of ownership over an idea; human nature is human nature and motivating people to work hard and feel ownership is its own challenge.

[vagabund]

I think manipulating people into believing something that's not true is a bad thing, even if it improves the bottom line. To think otherwise, I submit, is the truly cynical view.

[kortilla]

But it doesn’t matter. If two people think they came to the same design together it doesn’t matter if someone else already did ahead of time.

The important thing is that they have convinced themselves that it makes sense.

You don’t even have to lie. You can go into a meeting as a lead and say that you have an idea of how something might look but you want the group to come up with a design anyway.

[jrumbut]

I agree with you. There are enough people in the world who play games to make others suffer that I'm not going to spend much energy resenting people who play games to make others feel good.

I do think the author's final point about psychological safety is a good one.