The MeetingMortem journal
Notes on the practice.
Field notes, guides, and the thinking behind MeetingMortem.
Latest · 6 min read
Why You Can't Get Anything Done Before a Meeting: The Psychology of Bounded Time
Why you can't get anything done before a meeting: the science of bounded time, how a 3 p.m. meeting quietly shrinks your whole afternoon — and how to win it back.
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More from the journal
- 02
Confirmation Bias in Meetings: Why the Decision Was Made Before Anyone Walked In
Confirmation bias in meetings turns discussion into ratification. The science of why teams gather evidence for choices already made — and what actually changes minds.
2026-07-12
6 min read
- 03
Why You Can't Think Clearly in Meetings: Social Facilitation and the Hidden Cost of Being Watched
Ever find the perfect answer an hour after the meeting ends? Social facilitation explains why you can't think in meetings — and what actually fixes it.
2026-07-11
6 min read
- 04
The Illusory Truth Effect in Meetings: Why an Idea Repeated Enough Times Becomes a Fact
The illusory truth effect in meetings turns repeated claims into office facts no one checks — here's the psychology, and how to catch it before it shapes your roadmap.
2026-07-11
7 min read
- 05
Should This Meeting Have Been an Email? The Real Science Behind the Joke
Should this meeting have been an email? Communication science has an actual answer — a two-word test that tells you when to meet and when to just write it down.
2026-07-11
7 min read
- 06
The Fundamental Attribution Error in Meetings: Why You Judge Your Coworkers by Their Worst Hour
The fundamental attribution error in meetings makes you read a quiet colleague as disengaged and yourself as merely busy. The science of why — and how to stop.
2026-07-10
7 min read
- 07
Egocentric Bias in Meetings: Why Everyone Thinks They Talked the Least and Did the Most
Egocentric bias in meetings makes every person quietly certain they contributed more and spoke less than they did. Here's the memory glitch behind it — and the fix.
2026-07-10
7 min read
- 08
Hindsight Bias in Retrospectives: Why Every Meeting Postmortem Concludes It Was Obvious
Hindsight bias in retrospectives quietly rewrites what your team knew before the decision — turning an honest hard call into an obvious mistake. Here's how to stop it.
2026-07-09
7 min read
- 09
Emotional Contagion in Meetings: Why One Person's Bad Mood Quietly Rewrites the Room
Emotional contagion in meetings means moods spread faster than ideas — one tense voice can reshape a whole decision. Here's the science, and how to stop being a carrier.
2026-07-09
7 min read
- 10
The Spotlight Effect: Why You Overthink What You Said in a Meeting Long After Everyone Else Forgot
Why you overthink what you said in a meeting comes down to the spotlight effect—the bias that makes your stumbles feel unforgettable while everyone else has already moved on.
2026-07-08
6 min read
- 11
The IKEA Effect in Meetings: Why We Defend the Ideas We Built Ourselves
The IKEA effect explains why we defend our own ideas in meetings even when they stop making sense — and how to separate authorship from ownership so the best idea wins.
2026-07-08
6 min read
- 12
The Curse of Knowledge: Why the Person Who Knows the Most Is the Hardest to Follow in Meetings
The curse of knowledge in meetings explains why experts explain things badly: once you know something, you can't un-know it. Here's the mechanism and the fix.
2026-07-08
6 min read
- 13
Why Talkative People Seem Like Leaders in Meetings: The Babble Hypothesis
Why talkative people seem like leaders in meetings has less to do with what they say than how much they say it. Meet the babble hypothesis — and how to fix it.
2026-07-07
6 min read
- 14
Groupthink in Meetings: Why the Most Agreeable Teams Make the Worst Decisions
Groupthink in meetings makes smart teams choose badly when everyone agrees too quickly. Here's the psychology behind it—and how to build in the doubt that saves you.
2026-07-07
6 min read
- 15
Decision Fatigue in Meetings: Why Afternoon Meetings Make Worse Decisions
Decision fatigue in meetings explains why the same team that reasons carefully at 10 a.m. defaults, defers, and rubber-stamps by 4 p.m. — and how to schedule around it.
2026-07-06
7 min read
- 16
Authority Bias in Meetings: Why the Highest-Paid Person's Opinion Quietly Wins
Authority bias in meetings means the highest-paid person's opinion quietly wins. Here's the science of why teams defer—and how to design the deference out.
2026-07-06
6 min read
- 17
Why No One Remembers What Was Decided in Meetings: The Science of Team Memory
Why no one remembers what was decided in meetings: the next-in-line effect, transactive memory, and why five smart listeners leave with five different versions.
2026-07-04
6 min read
- 18
The Illusion of Transparency: Why Everyone Leaves the Same Meeting With a Different Version of It
The illusion of transparency in meetings convinces speakers they were understood and listeners that they understood. The psychology of the gap — and how to close it.
2026-07-04
7 min read
- 19
The True Cost of Meetings: Opportunity Cost Neglect, or Why an Hour Never Feels Expensive
Meetings feel free because no invoice ever arrives. Learn the true cost of meetings, the psychology of opportunity cost neglect, and how to make the price visible.
2026-07-03
6 min read
- 20
How to End a Meeting Effectively: The Peak-End Rule and Why the Last Five Minutes Matter Most
Learn how to end a meeting effectively. The peak-end rule shows the final minutes shape how everyone remembers the whole hour — and whether decisions stick.
2026-07-03
6 min read
- 21
Anchoring Bias in Meetings: Why the First Idea Spoken Sets the Whole Decision
Anchoring bias in meetings means the first number or idea spoken quietly sets the range for everything after. Here's the science — and how to break the anchor.
2026-07-03
7 min read
- 22
Why Video Calls Are So Exhausting: The Science of Zoom Fatigue
Why are video calls so exhausting? Stanford researchers named four mechanisms behind Zoom fatigue — close-up gaze, self-view, and more — and what actually helps.
2026-07-02
6 min read
- 23
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Why Recurring Meetings Outlive Their Purpose
The sunk cost fallacy explains why recurring meetings never get cancelled long after they stop being useful. Learn the psychology and how to retire dead meetings.
2026-06-27
7 min read
- 24
Parkinson's Law: Why Every Meeting Expands to Fill the Full Hour
Why meetings always run the full hour, explained by Parkinson's Law. Learn how the time you book becomes the time you spend — and how to shrink it.
2026-06-27
7 min read
- 25
Why Group Brainstorming Produces Fewer Ideas: Production Blocking Explained
Why group brainstorming produces fewer ideas than people thinking alone — production blocking explained, plus the simple structure that gives a meeting its ideas back.
2026-06-26
7 min read
- 26
Why You Can't Focus After Back-to-Back Meetings: Attention Residue Explained
Attention residue is why you can't focus after back-to-back meetings — your mind stays stuck on the last call. Here's the science and how to clear it.
2026-06-24
7 min read
- 27
The Common Knowledge Effect: Why Meetings Rehash What Everyone Already Knows
The common knowledge effect explains why meetings rehash shared facts and bury the one detail that mattered. Learn the hidden profile problem and how to fix it.
2026-06-24
7 min read
- 28
Bikeshedding: Why Meetings Spend the Most Time on the Least Important Decisions
Bikeshedding in meetings explains why your team debates the coffee budget for an hour but approves a six-figure plan in minutes. Here's the mechanism — and the fix.
2026-06-23
7 min read
- 29
Why People Don't Speak Up in Meetings — and the Hidden Cost of the Silence
Why people don't speak up in meetings usually isn't apathy — it's psychological safety, evaluation apprehension, and anchoring. Here's what silence really costs you, and how to fix it.
2026-06-22
7 min read
- 30
Why Large Meetings Get Less Done: The Ringelmann Effect and the Hidden Math of Group Effort
Why large meetings get less done isn't about bad facilitation—it's the Ringelmann effect and social loafing. Learn the science of group effort and the fix.
2026-06-22
7 min read
- 31
The Abilene Paradox: Why Teams Agree to Decisions No One Actually Wants
The Abilene paradox explains why teams agree to decisions no one wants. Learn the mechanism behind false consensus in meetings—and how to surface real dissent before it's too late.
2026-06-22
7 min read
- 32
Why Meeting Action Items Don't Get Done — And How to Make Them Stick
Why meeting action items don't get done, explained through the psychology of diffusion of responsibility and implementation intentions — plus how to write follow-ups that actually happen.
2026-06-19
7 min read
- 33
Why Your Meetings Run Long: The Planning Fallacy and How to Fix Time Estimates
Meetings run long because of the planning fallacy—our brain's bias toward best-case time estimates. Learn the science of why and how to fix meeting time estimates.
2026-06-16
7 min read