---
title: Things I changed my mind about
date: 2026-09-03
description: Five opinions I held loudly two years ago and no longer hold.
tags: [process]
---

I went through this site's older notes last weekend to see what I would write differently. Five opinions I used to hold, none of which survived.

**Meetings should be short.** I used to think length was the problem. It is attendance. A 90-minute workshop with the right six people beats a 30-minute sync with twelve.[^1]

**Everything needs a template.** I still like the meeting template, but I tried a template for design rationale and nobody filled it in. Some things want to be a paragraph.

**Research should be rigorous.** Rigour is fine. What I really wanted was for people to believe me, and that is a different project with different tools.

---

**Write less.** I used to cut my [billing log](/notes/billing-rebuild-log) down because it felt self-indulgent. I now think the long version is the only one that taught me anything.

**Be consistent.** Consistent with what? In the second year I realised that I had been consistent mostly to avoid deciding.

I will probably disagree with this list by 2028, and that's fine. I would rather have a dated record of being wrong than a clean record that says nothing.

[^1]: The workshop in question was in Porto, in March 2025. The six were chosen by Hana, who knew who would argue and who would listen.