Someone pointed out to me that you cannot succeed in US "leadership positions" without being a "confident liar"! This applies to politics, business, and even higher levels of academia / technology. Not everyone is a confident liar. Thank God some people still feel internal conflict when forced to lie, reflected in their manner and delivery. The population distribution of this skill may vary between groups of people 🤔 For example, most physicists and mathematicians are trained not to lie. Saying anything that is even slightly incorrect or non-rigorous has big negative consequences. Peers quickly lose respect if your views are presented without accurate confidence levels or error estimates. People outside these fields often can't even give a mathematical definition of a confidence level or error estimate. Even in rigorous science, I find that men are more likely to bluff ("proof by intimidation") than women. Aspies and Confucians are usually poor liars. Kids who grew up in Iowa were less likely to be accomplished liars than big city kids I met later in life.

Pro-tip for VCs: Your due diligence should include conversations with engineers who are NOT confident liars - usually lower down the org chart. Just ask them some simple, direct questions...