I just read the planning fallacy wiki article and was surprised to NOT see proposed what I have thought was a good reason for the persistence of the error. It is something like this:
Tell a manager and group they will get the task done in 3 months and they will get it done in 5 months.
Tell the same manager and group they will get it done in 5 months and they will get it done in 6 months.
I sorta guessed that the “fallacy” persisted because it increased productivity.
My anecdotal evidence on myself is good for this: I HATE having deadlines where I will have to work hard to meet them, but I do work much harder when I have them.
This kind of thinking about the fallacy seems related to Steve Jobs’ “Reality Distortion Field.” What happens is tremendously altered by what management says will happen. In my theory, planning is less for the purpose of planning and more for the purpose of creating an outcome, of distorting reality from what it would have been otherwise.
I just read the planning fallacy wiki article and was surprised to NOT see proposed what I have thought was a good reason for the persistence of the error. It is something like this:
Tell a manager and group they will get the task done in 3 months and they will get it done in 5 months.
Tell the same manager and group they will get it done in 5 months and they will get it done in 6 months.
I sorta guessed that the “fallacy” persisted because it increased productivity.
My anecdotal evidence on myself is good for this: I HATE having deadlines where I will have to work hard to meet them, but I do work much harder when I have them.
This kind of thinking about the fallacy seems related to Steve Jobs’ “Reality Distortion Field.” What happens is tremendously altered by what management says will happen. In my theory, planning is less for the purpose of planning and more for the purpose of creating an outcome, of distorting reality from what it would have been otherwise.