February 12, 2026
Deadline drama: sweep or weep
Put Your Reputation on the Deadline (2023)
Internet erupts: curling bosses, kindergarten leadership, and the real Sept 1 deadline
TLDR: The piece argues shipping by Dec 15 requires locking everything by Sept 1, sparking a brawl over deadlines, honesty, and management style. Commenters split between “stop deadline worship” and “own your estimates,” with curling jokes and Agile vs Waterfall sniping making it irresistibly messy.
Seth Godin’s old-school truth bomb—“if you want to ship Dec 15, the real deadline is Sept 1”—lit up the comments like a bonfire. The loudest voices cheered: finally, someone admits deadlines are only real when requirements are real. Others pushed back hard, calling the piece paternalistic for comparing good managers to kindergarten teachers. Cue the drama: the curling analogy had Canadians dropping curling GIFs and engineers groaning that they’re just sweeping Slack while the stone swerves. The Sept 1 line triggered a classic Agile vs Waterfall throwdown, with one camp yelling “this is Waterfall in a cozy sweater,” and the Agile crowd firing back that clear inputs aren’t anti-Agile, they’re survival. A spicy sub-thread fixated on the typo “deceipt,” naturally—grammar police vs vibes-only defenders. The most heated debate? Whether managers incentivize optimistic lies or whether professionals should own honest estimates, even if it makes them look slow. Jokes popped off: “My PM is a curling skip, I’m the broom,” and “Kindergarten? Fine, but who gets snack time?” Meanwhile, the cynics nailed it: marketing invents the date, teams inherit the panic. Love it or hate it, everyone agreed on one thing—missed expectations start months before the ship date.
Key Points
- •The article advocates backward planning: determine the date by which complete requirements must be delivered to meet a target ship date.
- •Misaligned personal goals within teams can cause undercommunication and missed deadlines, as illustrated by a curling metaphor.
- •Managers may incentivize optimistic yet inaccurate estimates due to fear of harming morale, job risk, perception of laziness, diffusion of responsibility, and weak deadlines.
- •Good management resembles a kindergarten teacher’s role: provide structure, tools, safety, and support while maintaining clear objectives.
- •Aligning business goals with employee needs, listening empathetically, and keeping promises are presented as keys to consistent quality and delivery.