Why Linear and Issue Trackers Are Always Lagging Indicators

Linear is always a lagging indicator

I argue that tools like Linear fail as real-time visibility metrics when management uses them to track progress, causing engineers to focus on tickets rather than actual engineering. Since most planning happens in informal conversations and design reviews before a ticket is even created, the tool only reflects work after the hard thinking is done. I believe half of organizational effort is wasted figuring out what everyone is doing, suggesting we need LLMs to synthesize status from Slack and PRs instead.

"My pet theory is that at least 50% of the work done at a large organization is internally figuring out what the organization is doing."