An Ode to Deadlines
Many years ago, I had a conversation with a co-worker at Oracle who shared with me his theory on why MIT grads didn’t always make the best engineers. ? Very little practical training, not the best social skills….and a few other reasons I can no longer recall.? But there was also one redeemable quality he saw in this group:? An unusually strong compulsion for meeting deadlines.? Now, I don't care much for stereotypes so I am not here to argue that any of these observations are verifiably true or false.? But that? conversation stuck with me, and it sometimes did make me wonder if certain schools instilled a stronger appreciation for deadlines than others.
When I missed a minor deadline last week, I had to quickly decide on next steps.? After all, it wasn’t a big deadline so things could potentially wait a bit longer.? But then I was reminded of Fred Kaufman’s workshop on commitments. ? Fred contended that the person that you are offending the most when you break a commitment is you because it’s a public demonstration of how little you think of your own word.? And if you don’t respect yourself, why should others??
I would be the first to admit that I’ve always had a strained relationship with deadlines because I have often felt that even the small ones carry far more weight than my head tells me they should.? Perhaps it’s because, to Fred's point, breaking any of them should be equally offensive to me regardless of how big or small the commitment. ? Or maybe it’s because just like how small lies lead to big lies, every missed deadline, no matter how small, portends bigger issues ahead.? Or just maybe, I was indoctrinated into taking timelines way too seriously in school.
No matter what the reason might be, I’ve always found timelines to be almost sacred and very effective in helping me prioritize and get shit done. ? In fact, I’ve even used them to force myself into action when I needed a little extra self-motivation.? This monthly blog itself is a somewhat meta testament to this power of deadlines.? I committed to posting monthly four years ago, and like any good procrastinator, you can usually find me scrambling around towards the end of each month.? And of course, right on cue, I'm back with another article on the last day of this month.
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"I don't need time. What I need is a deadline! " Duke Ellington
This may not be a popular opinion, but I cannot even imagine a world without deadlines.? I simply need deadlines to help me maintain some semblance of order and make sense out of life.? Maybe living from deadline to deadline is not healthy, but the alternative feels too chaotic and even less healthy.? We can hate them when they are bearing down on us and rue the times we miss them, but deadlines are what goals are made of.? And for that, they deserve our appreciation.? So love your deadlines, meet your deadlines, and hopefully they will love you back and help you respect yourself more too.? An Ode to Deadlines.
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Engineering Leader | AI Safety Advocate
2 年I've often found deadlines become an end in themselves, and obscure the goal they originally intended to serve (like getting shit done with a high quality bar). I'd love for us to take deadlines off their current pedestal, and to become more comfortable scrapping/changing/modifying them when they're no longer of service.
I so much agree....without deadline my days are less effective
Software Architect at Aescape
2 年I love deadlines at the beginning of a project: they offer a good mechanism for estimating, scoping and prioritizating, they help figure out dependencies, commitments, resources. Later in a project, I have mixed feelings. There comes a point where the ROI of the remaining work is so high that it't never in question, and where the remaining work in question is all done on an ASAP basis. As long as people know to fight scope creep on their own, I tend to see deadlines at the end of a project are a source of unnecessary stress.