> In many large or even medium-sized IT projects, there exists a thermocline of truth, a line drawn across the organizational chart that represents a barrier to accurate information regarding the project’s progress. Those below this level tend to know how well the project is actually going; those above it tend to have a more optimistic (if unrealistic) view.

I wonder if this is unique to IT projects. Could folks from different industries comment?

As an aside, when I read "wetware", I am immediately reminded of this iconic line: "Burn's wetware matches her software"

This is Hacker News after all!

Shooting the messenger has been talked about for thousands of years since at least the ancient Greeks.

Getting your subordinates to give you honest bad news rather than false good news has been a problem of militaries since basically forever. I'm sure you could find a Sun Tzu reference for it.