this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
974 points (99.2% liked)
Programmer Humor
19488 readers
841 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Montgomery Scott of the Starship Enterprise has entered the chat.
My manager once accused me of overinflating my (granted, very conservative) estimates just to be able to pull off a Scotty and be early in 10% of the time.
I don't know, that mindset is so foreign to me. If someone was overestimating how long it would take because they were simply trying to be conservative and not run into unexpected cost overruns, I would commend them. I've always considered it more prudent to expect something to take longer so you know the kind of budget you need up front instead of lying to yourself about it. It costs a lot more (in terms of lost time and productivity) to have to swing a new budget mid-project because it turns out you've burned through the planned budget and you're only 2/3 the way done with the project.
So, screw your manager, you're doing the right thing, in my eyes. I guess that's why I'm not in charge of anything.
You know, maybe we shouldn't be taking estimation advice from a 1980s science fiction movie that amounts to a systematic method of lying.
Yes, I've used it before. Yes, you can hopefully have everything average out in the end. Yes, project managers demand estimates. None of these are good reasons to back up how fundamentally flawed it is.
It's called a joke. We're in a sub called "programmer humor." You must be fun at parties.
Except people take that method seriously all the time. All the objections I raised were one's people have actually thrown back at me.
I'm tons of fun at parties. Everybody loves seeing my collection of bottles from defunct soda companies.
Ah, yes, my favorite activity at parties, looking at some weirdos trash collection.
Hey, if you're anywhere in the area, I've got fine collection of IKEA allen keys a