You don’t owe progress reports to people who hoped you’d fail.

Some people ask how it is going because they care, and some ask because they are checking the scoreboard. You can usually feel the difference in your stomach before you can explain it. Answering the second kind in detail hands them material, and it turns your work into something you have to justify instead of something you are doing.

Fine, thanks, is a complete answer. Keep the real updates for the two or three people who would be glad either way. That is not being cold, it is deciding who gets to be part of the thing while it is still fragile.