Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1120IR // #c1120Synthesis

"This task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it."

— In our words · Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

[Use when]

Assignments go out as a goal with no method and no time estimate.

[Why it matters]

Taylor's task card was planned a day ahead and came with written method and a time limit, plus a 30 to 100 per cent bonus for hitting it. He insists the pace must be one a suited worker can sustain for years.

Filed under situations:When you’re building the thing, not just planning it

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1113"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant…Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes. #c1114"…after a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder…You are tempted to raise a quota because someone beat it. #c1115"…since they were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the…You are setting up pay for work where you can't easily see the pace.

Same situation, different book

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