The glossary
The book’s words.
Names, places and metaphors that recur in the stories.
Archias
The Alexandrian inventor who, according to a Greek elegy quoted in the book, built the Antikythera mechanism: a machine “able to simulate all actions”, showing “time and sequence” (p. 112).
Chronos
The group’s timekeeper in Gantt’s Prism. A role, not a person: whoever takes it calls time, stops the work, makes the group decide. See the tool.
Deadline
In the title and in the book, the deadline is death: “I fear I won’t get out of this deadline alive” (Marie, p. 65). But it is also the limit that gives time its value (p. 109).
Gantt and Taylor
In Murphy’s story, two letters from 1909 signed “H. L. G.” and addressed to “Frederick” (p. 113) link the Antikythera mechanism to Henry L. Gantt and Frederick Taylor. Managing time has ancient roots.
Kaboom
The safe word between Marie and her colleague Georgina. Slipped into an ordinary-looking email, it saves her life (p. 82). Every team should have one.
Lýein problēmata
“To solve problems”, in Greek. The origin of the name Lyeinpro, the organisation that created Plan Island to train Solvers (p. 272).
Milestone
In the book, the diamond-shaped stone under which the PM Butcher buries his victims (p. 64). On this site, the diamond is the recurring symbol.
Momentum X
The crisis you will never forget. Once through it, “nothing will ever frighten us again” (Mr. G, p. 273).
Mr. Wolf and Mr. Rolf
“Mr. Wolf, I solve problems” versus “Mr. Rolf, I create problems” (p. 48). Two opposite ways of being in a project.
Plan Island
The island for digital nomads created by Lyeinpro a thousand kilometres off the coast of Chile. In reality, a breeding ground for spotting and training the best Project Managers.
PM Butcher
The serial killer of Project Managers in Dea’s story. He poses as a PM recruiter and uses negative feedback as a weapon.
Good cop, bad cop
The ironic strategy by which PM and Account take turns in front of the client, always with ethics and honesty. See the PM–Account pair.
Gantt’s Prism
The puzzle structure in Murphy’s story. The Gantt chart stands for life as a sequence of interconnected events; the prism lets you change your point of view (p. 159).
Solvers (lýtes)
The Project Managers chosen and trained by Lyeinpro to handle humanity’s crises. The book’s eight narrators become Solvers in the finale.
Sorting out messes
How, in the preface, the author explains her job to her parents (p. 2).
War Room
The room equipped to handle reputational crises, where Elin’s team spends months (p. 164).
Quotations from the novel are translated from the Italian edition. Page numbers refer to the Italian edition.