The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Communication, Busyness, Relevance, And Commitment

The loop of adulthood, personally and professionally.

I think he may be cancelled now, but John Mulaney had a quote in a stand-up special once about adulthood, and it boiled down to: “We overcommit to things to NOT disappoint people, and then in the process of overcommitting, we disappoint people.” Seems very true in most contexts, friendships, and relationships I’ve known. I am guilty of it too.

I think the same thing applies at work. My friend John has defined it this way for me:

• When a project or new initiative starts, we often don’t give clarity to everyone touching it upfront — because we’re too busy, right?
• But then elements of the project bomb, because those involved lacked clarity, and we have to do more work on the back-end.
• Henceforth, it would make sense to over-communicate on the front-end and save time on the back-end, but that doesn’t seem to be the norm on most work projects.