If you're doing something creative then deadlines can be useful to stop yourself from constantly tweaking. Actually finishing stuff helps with morale and also allows you to review and hone processes, rather than getting lost in the weeds. I dabble in music production and the amount of 16 bar loops I had before actually deciding to restict myself (with the help of a friend adjudicating) was mind-boggling. Once I'd started to finish stuff it became easier overall to not get stuck in a rabbit hole.

How so? Not sure if you said that partly tongue in cheek, but deadlines for me usually seem to help me make realistic choices in order to get something done on a time budget. No doubt they can sometimes compromise lofty goals, and/or can be frustrating or less fun than having open-ended time, but there’s enough to be said about deadlines I don’t think I’d personally ever summarize them with a single word counterproductive.

In this context, the deadline section is referring to being ready for a demo party, possibly as a compo entry, which happens on a specific date, so what would even be an alternative to having a deadline? The writing wasn’t urging the reader to choose whether to use deadlines, it was saying pay attention to the fact that your demo showdown is coming up on a day picked by someone else, so plan accordingly. Right?

Some people find them motivating, and a useful guideline for tracking their progress.

Personally I find them paralyzing - so I'll just progress at my own speed - nobody is forcing us to use the timings proposed in the repo.

It depends on the person of course,but I think also in circumstance.

If I want to tinker or aimlessly play with something,sure,artificial deadlines may not suit me.

But if I want to even remotely accomplish an actual goal,or build something,or even learn something concrete,I positively need a firm and ideally external and enforced deadline - otherwise I'll meander,change scope and direction,redo from scratch,try a different tool / framework / system / method /whatever...and generally never ever finish

Constraints stimulating creativity and innovation is pretty well accepted fact.

Time to deliver is just another constraint, which tends to force all decisions be made quickly and to err on the side of forward progress vs. some theoretically ideal option.

Having participated in a few demo parties back in the 90s, I have a deep appreciation for the scene. But I think we tended to dismiss the negative consequences of sleep deprivation, considering what we know now about the brain and sleep.

Edit:

Also, in terms of deadlines in general, not just the insane 24/48hr demoscene/gamejam style competitions, it can be rather difficult to prioritize a project receives your precious bandwidth on a given day if there's no deadline. It just keeps getting pushed aside by the tasks that do.

As a deeply lazy man, the I was most productive during the handful of Ludum Dare 48-hour game jams I entered. It felt great, if stressful. I couldn't afford to stay too far off from my plan if I'd intended to meet the deadline.

Even if you’re not working toward a submission date it’s good to have deadlines, even if just to see where you are at given points in time.

For actual deadlines often features get cut to meet them - and said features may return in future versions.

It depends. For projects which are never really 'done' (i.e. there's always more polish you can put on), they can help focus things to get them out the door. However for other projects they can be extremely counterproductive, especially if the priority is on having something done by the deadline over having something which is good enough as soon as possible (in which case sufficiently poorly defined deadlines can basically prolong a project indefinitely).

Well, I see you got a lot of the same, kind of generic answers. Deadlines motivate you, and this and that.

That’s all good and well, but my initial thought is simple. Just remember the title. The author specifically designed this course to teach Demoscene ‘in 14 days’.

If you don’t mind taking longer, then the deadlines don’t apply. But the course is designed to help you do it in this timeframe.

Sometimes; I find it can depend on the project in mind. I think if a decent number of people try to scope for a certain timeline, you can get interesting discussions on what's achievable within the timeframe.

Maybe a bit like schoolwork, what you get out of it is what you're able to put into it.

demo was all about constraints, cpu speed, ram size, binary size, etc. constraints push creativity. so does deadlines.

Time is money and everything has a budget.

Deadlines help me scope a project. Especially with something open-ended like "learn demoscene".

A deadline is just a goal that helps you structure your efforts.