There are times to be honest and there are times to sugar-coat. The predicament is we overdo the latter. The reasons for this are simple. We want to be supportive. We don't want to hurt other people; or we want to remain valuable to people and so on. We underestimate the powers of honesty and exaggerate the helpfulness of sugar-coating. Honesty can easily be mistaken to exude envy. Everyone is on high alert to find envious friends and everyone is eager to tag anyone as such. We sugar-coat to stay safe, until it is all we do and flattery seems to be the best resort. Envy is a negative thing. We prefer surrounding ourselves with flatterers than risk the possibility of such negativity. Interestingly, flatterers consist of those who’re trying to mask their envy. 

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