Column · deadlines improve
Not the thinking — the embellishment. Under time pressure, features that exist to impress disappear first, and the core promise is what remains. That is usually an improvement.
Because without a date, every addition is defensible in isolation. The accumulation is the problem, and no single decision caused it.
Fix the date, then let scope be the variable. Write the promise first, in one sentence, and treat anything that does not serve that sentence as cuttable when time runs short.
A deadline cannot fix a promise nobody wanted. It can only ensure you find that out sooner, which is its real value.
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