HACKER Q&A
📣 mrponziman

Anyone ever unintentionally created a ponzi scheme from standups?


One day you are like: "I hope to get task A finished today". The next day you are still not finished. And the next day. Then you feel you've taken too long so you are: "pushing changes for A and moving onto task B". No one is checking your work. So next standup you say you are now working on B because it would seem crazy that you are still on simple task A. But you are actually still working on A.

The fact that you said A was done means you are now caught in a lie.

And there is no way you can ever admit to that professionally. So now you are doing A and B at the same time. And A is blowing out by a lot. You over-engineered it. You had a zero productivity day. You'll pick up some small easy tasks to show some progress and maintain your reputation, but A is still not delivered, and now B seems like it took too long. ADD and procrastination don't help. And you are on probation. So now you are "almost ready to push B", but A is not done, and B is not done.

You've basically created your own ponzi scheme (and the stress that goes along with it) from never wanting to admit that you have a couple days where you weren't productive, and that you felt a task shouldn't take as long as it should.

Anyone?


  👤 derefnull Accepted Answer ✓
the standup is a tool to help keep the team moving, and surface issues early. a good use of the standup is asking for help on a task that is taking longer than expected. often, people underestimate the time a task will take. ultimately the tasks need done. “small easy tasks” that are not A and not B represent distractions.

Ask your team lead for help