At some point all I can suggest is "don't work for a liar". Of course that
    may be easier said than done.

The point of my anecdote was to illustrate how Agile makes it easier to lie, and makes it difficult for honest people to call out liars. If a manager tells me that the deadline is Wednesday, and the deadline passes without anything bad happening, then he or she looks bad. If a manger estimates a "3", and I estimate a "3", and then it turns out that our definitions of what a "3" is differ, then I look bad, regardless of whether the work was, in reality a "3", a "5", or a "3.1415926".

    But that doesn't mean that good practices are worse than bad practices!

The worst practice of all is a bad practice that masquerades as a good practice. I'd much rather that people be honest and up-front about the deadline (even if it is BS) than try to hide behind some overly complicated poker-game kabuki.