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Comment by hmwhy | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure the metal state that you are referring to really makes a difference in terms of deadline estimation. The way I see it is that, in the grand scheme of things, if you are consistently missing the targets then either you get fired or, if the problem is systemic, the company folds.

In other words, if you are not getting fired and the company isn't folding, and that neither is happening anytime soon, then everything is just "business as usual" and missing a deadline here and there is just part of the natural statistical fluctuations that everyone have come to accept according to some unwritten rules.

I would go as far as drawing parallels between "being in the zone" for a software engineer and "meeting sales targets" for a salesperson. In that sense, not being in the zone every now and then is just as reasonable (or unreasonable, depending on your employer) as missing sales targets every now and then.

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I would add that many "deadlines" are actually just arbitrary project management bullshit that exist to create a sense of "urgency" because the people that make the promises to customers don't trust the people that do the work.

But on an individual level, procrastination and slipping deadlines has a deep seated psychological basis. The best way an individual can deal with this problem is by addressing internal motivations and their own emotional state-- that's definitely NOT in the PM-BOK. (see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-pr...)

The problem is deadlines in and of themselves, it quite often leads to student syndrome[1].

I've seen it from the small up to the very big project. And I also believe it's also a little self feeding, after cramming so much for the first deadline you feel you deserve a little break, right?

We need to develop far more steady working practices harnessing intrinsic motivation rather than drive through fear derived motivation of deadlines and other anathemas of healthy work ethic.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome

> in terms of deadline estimation

In my experience, deadlines are usually arbitrary to begin with. They are the result of annual/quarterly budget allocation much more than actual customer needs. Nothing of value is lost when they are missed.

I understand the need to divvy up budgets, especially in publicly listed companies. What strikes me as nonsensical is the particular inflexibility with these budgets and their poor correlation to actual customer needs. Perhaps this is merely a symptom of the modern business world, where "the business" refers to a class of people rather than the actual business.

I believe that OP is talking about estimating deadlines for yourself. If you estimate a deadline and then due to some reasons your mental state deteriorates, that makes it considerably harder to achieve it. Sales targets and deadlines provided externally would have very different connotations imo.

> if the problem is systemic, the company folds.

This is not the neccessary result. If a company is well established in its bullshit dealings it can survive for decades with inefficiencies and in some perverse cases even thrive.

> if the problem is systemic, the company folds.

Why do you think that? Imagine we have two similar companies, and one of them has mediocre deadline estimates, while the other would be mediocre except they also underestimate everything by 50%. Shouldn't both companies have similar success in the market?

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