[cmonnow]

I am a big fan of 'under promise. over deliver'.

A lot of communication (what I'm going to work on next week) falls under promise. So I don't tell what I'm doing until I've already done it. Or when I'm unable to do it.

In other words, I let success or failure be known only after I've made sure of either using my best efforts. This usually takes ~2 weeks of isolated/concentrated effort to find out.

Then as a consultant at Big Tech working with different customers, I found out they are not big fans.

'promise. deliver or not' - is what they seem to prefer.

Obviously none likes shocks. But they also don't like surprises.

Source - got fired despite extra-mile technical achievements.