Situations / Running projects
Running projects
Planning, prioritising and deciding whether to continue.
Traps you might be in
- No. 0310 Ego DepletionAfter a day of biting your tongue, you open the snack cupboard and feel too worn out to resist.
- No. 0335 Escalation of CommitmentThe pilot misses its target, and you open next quarter’s budget to find more money for the plan you pitched.
- No. 0466 Hindsight BiasThe layoffs are announced, and last month’s vague worry suddenly feels like something you knew for sure.
- No. 0587 Loss AversionYou find $20 in an old coat, then lose $20 on the train and spend the evening thinking about the loss.
- No. 0681 Not-Invented-Here SyndromeA colleague offers a tool that does the job, and your team starts planning its own version without even opening the demo.
- No. 0697 Optimism BiasYou read that most applicants get rejected, then start planning what to wear on your first day.
- No. 0705 Overconfidence EffectYou promise the client Friday, leave no buffer, and are surprised when one ordinary snag pushes delivery into next week.
- No. 0740 Planning FallacyYou promise the report by Friday, then spend the next week fixing problems your schedule never included.
- No. 0763 Present BiasYour workout starts in ten minutes, but you sit down for one more episode.
- No. 0910 Self-Serving BiasWhen your presentation wins praise, you credit your preparation; when it falls flat, you blame the room’s lousy attention.
- No. 1003 Sunk Cost FallacyYou keep pouring time into something because of everything you’ve already put in.
Tools to try
- No. 0069 BackcastingYou put a debt-free date on the calendar, then calculate what your balance must be three months before it.
- No. 0141 Chesterton’s FenceYou delete an old approval step, and the next payment goes to a bank account nobody verified.
- No. 0167 Commitment DeviceYou ask a friend to hold your game console until Friday, before the urge to play kicks in.
- No. 0239 Decision JournalSix months after a disappointing hire, you open your original notes and discover how certain you were that it would work.
- No. 0312 Eisenhower MatrixYou spend the morning answering messages, then realize the hiring plan due next month still hasn’t moved.
- No. 0381 Fermi EstimationThe launch meeting starts in ten minutes, and you still need a defensible guess at how many support agents to book.
- No. 0386 First Principles ThinkingYour team debates which competitor’s checkout to copy, and you ask what a customer actually needs to finish buying.
- No. 0388 Five WhysYou refill the label printer again, then notice nobody knows who is supposed to order the rolls.
- No. 0495 Implementation IntentionsWhen you shut your laptop, you trade opening the fridge for putting on your walking shoes.
- No. 0532 InversionBefore moving day, you list everything that could leave you outside the new apartment with a packed truck and no keys.
- No. 0590 Margin of SafetyYour flight lands at noon; you book the three o’clock train and leave the one o’clock ticket alone.
- No. 0618 Minimum Viable ProductBefore building a meal-planning app, you sell five people a week of menus and make the plans by hand.
- No. 0686 Occam’s RazorThree apps stop working at once, and you start reinstalling each one before checking the shared connection.
- No. 0696 Optimal StoppingYou find a rental you can afford, but keep refreshing the listings while its application deadline gets closer.
- No. 0704 Outside View vs. Inside ViewYou budget six weeks for a renovation, then learn that the last five similar jobs on your street took four months.
- No. 0754 Pre-MortemImagine the plan has already failed, then explain why. You’ll find problems you couldn’t see while hoping it would work.
- No. 0820 Red TeamingYour launch review is all green until a separate team tries to make the plan fail.
- No. 0872 Safe-to-Fail ExperimentYou test the new scheduling rule on one volunteer team, with someone ready to restore the old schedule that afternoon.
- No. 0878 SatisficingYou find an apartment within your budget and near work, then close the other rental tabs.
- No. 0886 Scenario PlanningBefore you sign a three-year lease, you sketch what happens if your biggest customer leaves or demand doubles.
- No. 0892 Second-Order ThinkingYou waive a late fee to help one customer, then next month five more customers start paying late.
- No. 1057 Two-Way vs. One-Way DoorsYour team spends three meetings debating a button label it could change back before lunch.
- No. 1079 Via NegativaYour week is packed, and canceling one standing meeting helps most, delivering more than a better calendar app could.
Patterns at play
- No. 0119 Brooks’s LawWith the release already two weeks late, your most experienced engineer spends Monday teaching three new hires the build process.
- No. 0180 Compounding EffectYour savings earn $500 the first year, then $525 the next, even though you haven’t added a dollar.
- No. 0212 Conway’s LawYour company sells one product, but customers need three accounts because three departments built their parts separately.
- No. 0264 Diminishing ReturnsYou hire another pair of hands, but the same cramped kitchen sends out only a few more meals.
- No. 0318 EmergenceYou stop on a clear highway, then crawl forward, though there’s no accident, roadwork, or blocked lane ahead.
- No. 0379 Feedback LoopsYou turn up the microphone to be heard, and the speakers answer with a squeal.
- No. 0412 Gall’s LawYour team has designed the entire replacement system, but nobody has yet put one real order through it.
- No. 0444 GroupthinkIn the budget meeting, you leave your warning unspoken as everyone nods along with the director.
- No. 0468 Hofstadter’s LawYou add two extra weeks to a software launch, then spend both fixing a dependency nobody knew was there.
- No. 0554 Law of Triviality (Bikeshedding)Your team approves the migration plan in five minutes, then spends half an hour arguing about the launch email’s subject line.
- No. 0679 Normalization of DevianceThe backup alarm has been silent for weeks, but every shift has gone fine, so today’s crew leaves it broken.
- No. 0721 Pareto PrincipleYour bank statement has forty small purchases, but rent and two bills swallow most of the money.
- No. 0722 Parkinson’s LawYou have all afternoon to send a simple email, and by five you’ve rewritten it six times.
- No. 0728 Path DependenceYour team keeps using the clunky database because every report, script, and hire has been built around it.
- No. 1009 Swiss Cheese ModelA patient gets the wrong dose even though the order has passed through a computer check, a pharmacist, and a nurse.
- No. 1030 Theory of ConstraintsYour team doubles its assembly speed, but finished orders still pile up beside the same overloaded testing bench.
- No. 1040 Tipping PointTwo people leave your weekly game night, and the remaining friends stop coming because they expect an empty table.
- No. 1064 Unintended ConsequencesYou turn off phone notifications, then find yourself checking the screen every five minutes.
Concepts to know
- No. 0343 Expected ValueThe repair shop offers a $180 protection plan, and you weigh that price against repairs you might never need.
- No. 0556 Leading vs. Lagging IndicatorYour support dashboard stays green all week, but unanswered tickets are piling up before customers start canceling.
- No. 0591 Marginal AnalysisThe hotel offers a room upgrade for $40, and you pause before clicking.
- No. 0694 Opportunity CostYou accept a Saturday overtime shift, then realize it costs you the only afternoon you could spend with your visiting sister.
- No. 0698 Option ValueYou pay a little extra for a refundable ticket because you still don’t know whether you can go.