> This is exactly what the phrase "it gets worse before it gets better" gives people permission to do.

Regarding this phrase, compare Repenning & Sherman, "Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems that Never Happened: Creating and Sustaining Process Improvement" (https://web.mit.edu/nelsonr/www/Repenning=Sterman_CMR_su01_....); https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu....