Silent resistance

Addy Osmani shares his 21 lessons from working in Google for 14 years. This lesson stood out the most for me.

14. If you win every debate, you’re probably accumulating silent resistance.

I’ve learned to be suspicious of my own certainty. When I “win” too easily, something is usually wrong. People stop fighting you not because you’ve convinced them, but because they’ve given up trying – and they’ll express that disagreement in execution, not meetings.

Real alignment takes longer. You have to actually understand other perspectives, incorporate feedback, and sometimes change your mind publicly.

The short-term feeling of being right is worth much less than the long-term reality of building things with willing collaborators.

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