# The Positive Impact of Negative Thinking

**URL:** <https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013>\
**Category:** blog\
**Created:** [September 15, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013 "2005-09-15T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013/1 "2005-09-15T00:00:00Z")

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In [Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633609/codihorr-20?tag=codihorr-20), DeMarco and Lister outline the dangers of penalizing negative thinking:

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/09/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking.html](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/09/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking.html)

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**Author:** ![Haacked](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Haacked](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Haacked)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013/2 "2005-09-14T00:00:00Z")

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At my first company, we would cooperate with the project managers to maintain a top 10 risk list. Unfortunately, companies I’ve worked with afterwards haven’t been interested, so I maintain an informal one internally.

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**Author:** ![Paul\_Osburn](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Paul\_Osburn](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Paul_Osburn)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013/3 "2005-09-15T00:00:00Z")

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I agree. Let’s get the risks on the table right away and update that list during the project. Let’s be about building great software by doing whatever it takes.

On my projects we list the top risks for a project on the status report we send to the client. We update the report every week and go over it with them so everyone is on the same page: the client, the project team, etc. When we list the risks, I also like describing how we’re addressing the risk .

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**Author:** ![david27](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@david27](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/david27)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013/4 "2008-05-09T00:00:00Z")

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good ideas congratulations men

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:40am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-positive-impact-of-negative-thinking/1013/5 "2025-01-07T06:40:20Z")

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