Deadlines always annoyed me. I suspect a large part of it is "what does it mean to miss a deadline?" Oxford Languages: the latest time or date by which somethi

Deadlines always annoyed me. I suspect a large part of it is "what does it mean to miss a deadline?" Oxford Languages: the latest time or date by which something _should_ be completed. Meriam Webster: a date or time before which something must be done Those have vastly different implications: If something _must_ be done it implies "missing this has negative consequences" whereas if something _should_ be done: it's possible there are no consequences. Given that distinction: The author appears to share Oxford's definition. I'd rather differentiate these two definitions with different words "target date" vs "deadline". Missed deadlines are bad. Missed target require re-estimation of new target-dates.