Hacker News Reader

You can't make this stuff up. You're even excited about it.

(See my response to the sibling comment on koolba for the discussion if you wondering what I am talking about)

Managers aren't there to be everybody's friend. They're there to motivate, focus, gather resources and direct effort. A little fear can be very motivating.

You're absolutely right on that. However, the topic here is friends. If you think people that fear you make good friends, you don't have any.

The topic can change quickly or slowly as a particular branch of a thread progresses. In any case, the topic is also orbiting work, so there is room to interpret the comment as applying more to work relationships than friendship, which puts it in a slightly different light. I think you've just been primed by some other comments to interpret this a specific way.

W Edwards Deming, one of the most famous and respected individuals in the business management and industrial engineering space, would firmly disagree with you.

Driving out fear (of colleagues, of management, etc) was one of his key principles in creating quality for the organization.

http://www.quality-assurance-solutions.com/Deming-Point-8.ht...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com