Adam Savage on Deadlines & Other Building Tips

Not having grown up in the U.S. I never watched “MythBusters” but I learned about this science entertainment TV show when Adam Savage’s book “Every Tool’s a Hammer” landed on my shelf. In it Adam talks about his work on the show and the process of making, so it was easy to find several product lessons in there.

Specifically, Adam’s words on deadlines stood out to me. In building software products deadlines are both needed and scary, so I thought Adam did a wonderful job articulating their power to positively impact the work.

The clarifying power of a deadline is something that every marker should embrace in their own work. We should be asking ourselves repeatedly, “What is the essence of this project?” as we move down the path toward completion. And as the delivery deadline nears, we should ask that question more frequently, because it helps us remember why we’re there, and what the point of the whole project is.

Clearly this is true for any project — from working on a personal website to building a complex system that serves multiple stakeholders. In its essence, a deadline is really a constraint on your time as a resource, and constraints can make us more creative and ruthless in identifying value.

With no limitations on your resources, each one of those goals is liable to get equal weight and attention from you, potentially extending the life span of the project for years. With the help of a deadline, however, those goals start to change size and shape in proportion to one another and the project as a whole. As the deadline approaches, the ones that don’t impact function shrink and narrow and become ancillary, and fall away.

Besides Adam’s wise words on deadlines, I also really appreciated his advice on “mistake tolerance,” as he calls it. This is an attitude that gives us permission to get things wrong.

In the past, so many of us have been afraid of this idea. We were terrified of screwing up, because if we didn’t “get it right” then it was a waste. There was no tolerance for waste — of time, money, talent, other people’s patience. Except this is precisely were you figure out what something is supposed to be and how best to make it.

I certainly need a reminder of this as the fear of not getting to the right solution paralyzes me. The other skill I try to develop on a daily basis is adaptation. One makes plans, and one changes their plans. As Adam says,

Nothing ever goes according to plan. Facing yourself means taking responsibility for that fact, and making peace with the reality that to build something real and substantive is to give up some measure of control over your preconceptions of what you imagined you were making in the first place.

Hope you find these soundbites from “Every Tool’s a Hammer” thought-provoking and refreshing. My bookmarks in the book will keep reminding me of the value of deadlines, the importance of mistake tolerance, and giving up control as plans change.