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I agree that strong leadership is a requirement. However there’s a huge difference between being strong against pushy arseholes, and preemptively being an arsehole because people make allowances for your behaviour to others.

This just comes down to effective communication skills. And is evident by the number of other large projects survive without the rudeness.

Theo isnt an example that deserves emulation and admiration.

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I’m not sure I agree. My own management experience in engineering and software has shown that strong leadership means saying no quite a lot. Ideas come with best intent mostly but dangerous realities. A soft no is a keep trying to most engineering folk. Shutting something down needs a Theo.

You’re talking as Theo is the only form of strong management. As someone who is also an engineering manager, I can tell you that there are ways of saying “no” without being an arsehole.

I do agree that sometimes you just need to end the discussion. But that doesn’t mean that arsehole comments should be the default character trait.

Theo isn’t always an asshole.

But he is more often than he needs to be.

Or at least that’s our point of contention.

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