

False Urgency - cainetighe
https://medium.com/p/51e8150dfab4

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kethinov
When I think of false urgency, I think of the infamous shoulder-tap-management
style. Illustrated best here: [http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-
shouldnt-interrupt-...](http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-
interrupt-a-programmer)

Shoulder tapping someone to say "hey I just sent you an email about the thing"
is the very definition of false urgency.

If you do that, stop.

They'll see the email eventually. It can wait an hour.

~~~
tomjonesmi
Totally agree. It's the difference between urgency and emergency which gets
confused.

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freditup
Interesting article, I agree with it generally. The constant stimulation
culture of today really can mess us up - we have some sort of an addiction to
entertainment/stimulation, whether it's checking email or twitter, reading
short online articles, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this environment has
lead to mental issues being more common, but I haven't ever researched it.

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sjs1234
This is a far better 'culture' document then the Airbnb don't fuck up the
culture memo.

It speaks to an important and specific norm for programmers. Plus, it doesn't
read like the setup for a Greek tragedy, where hubris and self fulfilling
prophecy loom large.

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kordless
Urgency is demanding attention. Attention is achieved by raising interest in
other humans. For products, this raising of interest is known as 'marketing'.
There is a very fuzzy line between passive marketing and active marketing in
products. If you turn on a notification in your app just so the user uses your
app again, you've crossed the line and are contributing to a global 'arms
race' of marketing behavior that is slowly eroding everyone's joy. Please stop
what you are doing and just make your software great.

