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Comment by miklosme | Hacker News Reader

> In fact, this is merely an extension of a ploy used by children on a playground: "Oh yeah? I could have done that if I wanted to."

Or by adult professionals on Hacker News.

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I had an insufferable coworker who doubled down on that attitude. If he hadn't thought of something, instead of just saying he could have done it, he'd start rambling about why it was a bad idea, and that he was smart for choosing not to do it. His whole attitude was "I know everything, and if I don't know it, it's because it's not worth knowing". Worst part was the non-technical management ate it up because he was so confidently wrong, so people got dragged into working on his convuluted solutions that just happened to always match up with his skillset.

So how do you productively deal with this? There’s got to be a way, I just don’t know what it is.

The worse form of this is when they: 1) make poor choices faster than you can catch up

2) have a less senior team (in ability, not title) that can’t see more than a couple commits ahead to keep the damage in check.

> So how do you productively deal with this?

Explain it in your exit interview.

I know you're joking, but it's considered impolite to explain things in exit interviews.

Not if done professionally, positively, specifically, and helpfully.

I'm not- in every exit interview I offer polite, constructive feedback.

This describes an uncomfortably high fraction of CS people.

And very clumpy. Some places are nearly full, some nearly empty.

I have to deal with a couple of people like this and it's a waking nightmare. I'm trying to figure out if it's even possible to mitigate their damage or successfully negotiate with them, or if I just need to change jobs. This behavior is especially bad when it comes from manager / team lead types.