the.com/deadline
a line so dead it only resurrects when you've stopped trying to meet it.
means A deadline is the fixed point in time by which a task must be finished, after which it's considered late or failed.
from Brutally literal at the start: in American Civil War prison camps, the 'dead-line' was a boundary inside the stockade — cross it and guards would shoot you dead, no warning. By the early 20th century printers had borrowed the word for a guideline on the printing press bed past which type wouldn't print, and from there journalism seized it for the moment a story had to be in. The lethal edge faded; the dread did not.
- grim origin
- Civil War prison line; cross it, get shot
- adrenaline trigger
- Panic floods focus the night before due
- Parkinson's law
- Work swells to fill all time given
- creative fuel
- Constraints spike output more than freedom does
apollo 11 moon landing — july 20, 1969 - kennedy's deadline to land on the moon before decade's end
paris climate agreement — december 12, 2015 - 195 nations had a final deadline to reach consensus
brexit withdrawal agreement — january 31, 2020 - uk's deadline to leave the european union