I and some others on Lightcone team have continued to use this exercise from time to time. Jacob Lagerros got really into it, and would ask us to taboo ‘should’ whenever someone made a vague claim about what we should do. In all honesty this was pretty annoying. :P
But, it highlighted another use of tabooing ‘should’, which is checking what assumptions are shared between people. (i.e. John’s post is mostly seems to be addressing “single player mode”, where you notice your own shoulds and what ignorance that conceals. But sometimes, Alice totally understands what underlies her Should Statements, but Bob doesn’t know Alice’s model, and propagating Should Statements can result in Lost Purposes or confused, suboptimal work.
(FYI At some point one of us built a slack integration that replies at you whenever you use the word ‘should’, with “what do you mean by should? This was a joke that lasted about a week, but, listing here to convey that the post at least made it into our longish-term culture)
I don’t think “Taboo-ing ‘should’” isn’t always the right thing to do, but I think it’s a valuable exercise to do for a week or so, to flesh out the mental muscles.
I and some others on Lightcone team have continued to use this exercise from time to time. Jacob Lagerros got really into it, and would ask us to taboo ‘should’ whenever someone made a vague claim about what we should do. In all honesty this was pretty annoying. :P
But, it highlighted another use of tabooing ‘should’, which is checking what assumptions are shared between people. (i.e. John’s post is mostly seems to be addressing “single player mode”, where you notice your own shoulds and what ignorance that conceals. But sometimes, Alice totally understands what underlies her Should Statements, but Bob doesn’t know Alice’s model, and propagating Should Statements can result in Lost Purposes or confused, suboptimal work.
(FYI At some point one of us built a slack integration that replies at you whenever you use the word ‘should’, with “what do you mean by should? This was a joke that lasted about a week, but, listing here to convey that the post at least made it into our longish-term culture)
I don’t think “Taboo-ing ‘should’” isn’t always the right thing to do, but I think it’s a valuable exercise to do for a week or so, to flesh out the mental muscles.