If that database update is well know to be every August or that product launch is something like Apple's WWDC then sure, that's the distinction people are making.

If it's just we want to launch our latest product in the second week of June, because that's the one-off date we came up with when we started the project, that's different. It's not seasonality it's just failing to account for staff availablity/unrealistic planning.

If you miss your database update or product launch deadline you can't get arrested for it (in the vast majority of cases). Yes, all deadlines are arbitrary, but the consequences for missing them are different for different deadlines!

Being arrested is still just the arbitrary choice of people. It's not real in the sense defined earlier. It is not like, say, needing to harvest food before winter sets in.

Look, I love Baudrillard as much as anyone, and we can talk about simulacra all day, but it's simply not germane. We're not talking about whether these restrictions are societal constructs but rather whether they are predictable, reasonable, and controllable.

The tax deadline is predictable. A two-month restriction from holidays is relatively reasonable. The deadline is not realistically controllable. (Your employer cannot eliminate tax filing.)

How is one of those more real? They are both actions that people undertake to accomplish an objective, but there is nothing tangible or factual about either, which appears to be your working definition.

What makes you think any are more real than any other? If you had taken the time to read the thread you would have learned that the whole idea of a fake deadline is nonsensical.

No, only your idea of it is.

Huh? I have no idea. If I had an idea, why would I spend my time on a message forum with it? You have clearly not thought this through.

You had the idea that "the whole idea of a fake deadline is nonsensical". That could only have come to you because your idea of what a fake deadline is is wrong.[1] Because they exist, so the idea of them is not "nonsensical". HTH!

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[1]: So that's at least two ideas that you obviously have; putting the lie to your "I have no idea".

The classical notion of "idea" would exclude the output of software, no? Perhaps you are redefining "idea" here?

Stop being deliberately stupid

"I thought we were talking about real seasonality? A climate deadline arbitrarily chosen by the Sun and Earth's orbit around it is as much fake seasonality as any whim by a corporate executive."

Yeah, that's idiotic. But only about as much as your version.