
How to Tell the Truth - paulsutter
https://a16z.com/2017/07/27/how-to-tell-the-truth/
======
trjordan
Lots of negativity in this thread. I've been there too; plenty of companies
I've worked for have blown sunshine while it feels like we're headed straight
for the cliffs.

The fundamental problem, I think, is that there's frequently an imperfect
understanding of the scope of the truth.

Missing the sales number feels like the company is failing. But is this a
blip, because 2 big deals flaked? Or is this a systematic inability of the
sales team to build urgency?

3 of your best engineers quit. All of them have personal reasons for leaving,
but was it really because they had started drifting when a director didn't
deal with that toxic team 6 months ago?

Most of the time, nobody knows. And even if they think they do, they're just
guessing and confident.

In a practical way, the only thing that really matters is that you have a plan
everybody believes in. Telling the truth is crucial, because otherwise your
plan feels out of touch. Unfortunately (and this is especially true at
startups), nobody knows exactly how the company will go in the next 2-5 years.
But you still have to acknowledge the narrow facts and find a narrative that's
consistent with them.

It always feels optimistic and silly. It always feels like spin. The
alternative is to hunker down and pull a salary until the truth is that the
company is filing for bankruptcy, at which point the naysayers will have been
right all along.

~~~
alexandercrohde
What?

I don't understand what you're saying here. It sounds like you're conflating
negativity and honesty.

Honesty may or may not be negative. If you're Tesla, you can stand proud and
say "We are trying to change the world," that is both honest and positive. If
you are Zynga, you cannot.

There is an alternative to to "spin" that's not pessimistic, it's the
middleground called realism.

~~~
harryh
He meant that there is negativity in the comments on HN, not in the blog post.

~~~
alexandercrohde
Well then I don't understand on what basis he's saying "It always feels
optimistic and silly. It always feels like spin."

If you tell the honest truth "We may fail, I'm not sure, but it's not the end
of the world if this company fails, most do" that doesn't sound like silly
spin to me.

------
hprotagonist
At the risk of being "that guy on HN who just quotes poetry":

 _Tell all the truth but tell it slant,

Success in circuit lies,

Too bright for our infirm delight

The truth's superb surprise;

As lightning to the children eased

With explanation kind,

The truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind._

Emily Dickinson

~~~
Danihan
I'm generally not a poetry fan, but wow, that is quite impressive.

~~~
hprotagonist
Miss Dickinson really knew how to throw a punch.

------
dvt
> Before Lincoln’s speech and after nearly 100 years of slavery, people did
> not think of the United States as a country “dedicated to the proposition
> that all men are created equal,” ...

Yeah, except for, you know, the second paragraph of the Declaration of
Indenpendence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal..." Comparing the Gettysburg Address to corporate spin (which is
essentially what the article is promoting) is cringeworthy, disrespectful, and
woefully out of line.

~~~
burkaman
That's the Declaration of Independence. If you look at the beginning of the
Constitution, you'll see "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union,
according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to
the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term
of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

Pretending America's founders were consistent and genuine in declaring "all
men are created equal" is cringeworthy, disrespectful, and woefully out of
line.

~~~
dvt
Thanks for the correction (doh!).

> Pretending America's founders were consistent and genuine in declaring "all
> men are created equal" is cringeworthy, disrespectful, and woefully out of
> line.

You're attacking a strawman here. I think you missed the salient point.

------
kappi
this bunch BS written solely from the perspective of american/western culture
standards..eastern culture have different perspective and you grow up trusting
folks who tell the truth even if it is unpleasant.

~~~
biztos
Indeed, sugarcoating the story is lying in some places, de rigueur in others.

I come from California, where newcomers usually have difficulty telling true
opinions from meaningless pleasantries. (The locals of course can tell.) And I
spend a lot of time in Germany, where the imperative towards honesty often
leaves politeness strangled in the dust; but also in Hungary, where honesty
has a lot to do with who's speaking to whom.

But so far I don't have much _business_ experience outside the US, and I
wonder whether the interpersonal and/or political norms apply to business.

Any insight into how that differs in whichever East you're referring to?

~~~
pdimitar
I can only speak as an Eastern European:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14878103](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14878103)
(FYI: this linked comment is right here in this thread)

------
oxryly1
For my next act, I shall praise Beauty!

------
brandonhsiao
_" CEOs should be honest. That seems obvious enough, but it turns out “be
honest” is easy to say, but amazingly hard to do. Let’s look at some scenarios
to understand why."_

I don't really see a paradox/conflict here. All the scenarios are basically,
the company isn't doing well, but saying so shows weakness. But in that case
the bigger possible truth is that maybe the company is doomed and should be
shut down. So it seems less a matter of telling the truth to others, and more
of admitting it to yourself. If the company _isn 't_ doomed, if despite doing
badly it has a path out, then that path is part of the truth you should tell
employees, and if your assessment is correct they'll stay.

------
alexandercrohde
So, I find this article vapid. It basically says -Tell the truth, but assign
your own meaning to it-. However, it's been my experience in tech that this is
exact behavior a major, major problem at the companies I've worked for.

Most startups I worked at insisted they were saving the world in one way or
another. The C level probably patted themselves on the back pretty hard for
coming up with such an inspiring interpretation. But within a year, it always
rung false (based on their actions being entirely inconsistent). This made me
trust them less than if they had simply said "We're in this to make money.
We're a company, that's what we do," which, in my opinion, is totally okay to
admit.

For example:

\- Do not call yourself a family if you have ever let somebody go within 3
months of hiring them. Would your literal family kick you out because they
weren't seeing an ROI in 3 months or because you were difficult?

\- Do not say your mission is to empower one group or another if your actions
are not truly in that group's best interest. E.g. giving them credit cards
when they're already in debt.

\- Do not imply that your "door is always open" unless you have the
willingness and time to hear some of the ways your company is actually fucked
up and act on them.

\- Do not suggest employees will get rich when you damn well how unlikely it
is.

\- Do not use bullshit euphemisms all the time, such as a massively failing
manager being "promoted" to a position with no authority. What your actions
are doing is saying "We work in a class system where you can't be fired once
you're at a certain level"

\- Do not imply you're a meritocracy. Your company isn't, it's a handful of
narcissistic wealthy people at the top surrounded by sycophantic top-level-
managers with actual laborers 3 or more levels down. The idea that individuals
can be rated on traits and promoted to "levels" is a laughable
oversimplification to anybody who thinks about it.

\- Do not imply most of your employees will ever be promoted if you know most
won't.

~~~
biztos
> "We work in a class system where you can't be fired once you're at a certain
> level"

But isn't that pretty close to the truth?

~~~
alexandercrohde
Heh, well then there are 3 ways to handle it:

1\. Call it like it is "John failed, but we live in a class system so instead
we're moving him to a less important team because we believe in this class
system"

OR

2\. Stop perpetuating that class system and fire people who do bad work, even
if they went to Yale.

OR

3\. Admit to yourself that you're not remotely honest, and don't expect any of
your intelligent employees to buy your story either. [i.e. The normal choice]

------
pdimitar
This article feels very USA-specific. As an Eastern European I can tell you
that most of us around here can very easily be won over if you're a boss and
you tell the truth, _especially if it is unpleasant_. Most EE people would get
a huge amount of loyalty for you if you're that boss and will tolerate
corporate bad times and lack of promotions as well.

I keep remembering George Carlin's words that Americans have trouble with the
truth. Obviously I am not judging but I've heard quite a lot of ther USA
citizens say the same.

Coming clean is the best thing you can do as a CEO. Plus, as my wife says "if
they leave you because you're in a tight spot, why would you need them
anyway?"

I realize it's not always _that_ clear and cut but IMO the general principle
is sound.

------
biztos
> Who else do you know that’s completely honest? I’ll bet that was much harder
> to answer.

Um, no. Does he really live in such a morally uncentered world that he thinks
most people would have difficulty answering this question? (Is the VC world
like that?)

Of course nobody is 100% honest all the time, that would be pathological. But
if you consider yourself an honest person, and live in the same universe I
live in, I bet you know a whole bunch of people you consider at least as
honest as yourself.

If not, that would be very sad, but it would still not be normal.

~~~
richmarr
> _Um, no. Does he really live in such a morally uncentered world..._

He does explicitly say _completely_ honest, and you admit that nobody is 100%
honest all the time.

Feel like you're moving the goalposts somewhat here.

~~~
jdmichal
The author is the one who moved the goalposts. Here's the opening question:

> Are you an honest person?

Now, here's the follow-up, emphasis mine:

> ... who else do you know that’s _completely_ honest?

Those are _not_ the same question, at all. biztos was correct to call it out.

~~~
richmarr
> The author is the one who moved the goalposts ...biztos was correct to call
> it out.

Yes, there's an extra word in there. I think you're both missing the point.

It wouldn't be interesting or valuable for Horowitz to change his honesty
benchmark half way through the opening paragraph. He even includes the word
"else" in there, reinforcing the equity of the two measures.

So, assuming he's not changing his honesty benchmark... nor is Horowitz likely
to believe that each individual reader is _objectively_ the only honest person
in their network (or one of few). There isn't even any reason to believe the
reader is above average in their honesty.

That really just leaves one reasonable interpretation in my mind; the point
that humans are _subjectively_ more likely to view ourselves as honest
compared to others. Whether you agree with this point or not is another
matter, but there's plenty of evidence for similar cognitive biases.

But yeah, I don't think this article is Shakespeare.

------
cityzen
"How to Tell the Truth" from the VC's invested in companies like Facebook and
Zenefits... I'll pass.

------
carsongross
Telling the truth will get you fired, ostracized and possibly assaulted today.

I don't like it, but telling the truth, like riding a bike to work, is a
luxury that only the extremely rich and extremely poor can afford today.

~~~
maym86
What are you talking about? Assulted? How is telling the truth related to
riding bikes and wealth?

------
OzzyB
What's with all the Hip-Hop/Rapper quotes with all these VC blogs? Is this
their way to seem "hip and relevant"?

Seems pretty forced and out of touch to me, and have being seeing this trend
more and more (I think Dave McClure loves Beastie Boys lyrics?!).

I guess it's a way for the ultra-rich to seem more "street" and equate their
hustle of VC investing w/ the street hustle?

~~~
crazypyro
This is ridiculous. Its almost like your premise is rich people aren't allowed
to enjoy hip-hop music without there being ulterior motives.

Its even more ridiculous because the author has been a fan of hiphop for a
long time...

~~~
OzzyB
I love all these insipid comments like "b-but he likes Rap!" LOL.

What's ridiculous are all your conclusions that "this is just some dude with a
blog who likes rap music"; my premise was actually about why someone who's in
the (very conservative) business of dealing with $Billions (of other ppls
money no less) likes to sprinkle rap music videos and lyrics all over their
public communications. My bet is that he thinks he's cool, guess what, he
isn't.

VC money and their managers spouting insight like street rappers, yo! Because,
you know, it's the same! Remind me to quote some Big Daddy Kane next time I
have an appointment on Sand Hill Road :D

------
Danihan
The TRUTH is that all people are not "created" equal, by any definable metric.
Intelligence, athleticism, charisma, beauty... each are quantifiable and vary
massively from person to person.

Hell, we don't even pretend to treat people equally under the law. See
affirmative action, offering disability benefits, treatment of addicts, etc.

But I guess saying that makes me "not a true American" according to this
facile, pretentious blog post by SV royalty.

Post should be called, "How to Pretend to Tell the Truth in Business."

~~~
pdimitar
We the people might not be created equal, but a part of us are aware that in
some regards we're disadvantaged and we fight to overcome that disadvantage.

So I don't understand your point.

~~~
Danihan
My point is that the statement literally isn't truthful in any meaningful way,
only symbolically at best -- so it's ironic to make it the centerpiece of a
blog post about "honesty".

~~~
pdimitar
Well, people strive for ideals, nothing bad about that.

~~~
Danihan
I would disagree, particularly when one's ideals cause them to tell themselves
lies about reality. Which happens all the time.

