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ptom
@ptom.net

I've seen the "business math telephone" version of this, where in additional to general ranging and conversion errors you have increased pressure to provide optimistic figures the higher up the chain you go. A realistic estimate with error bars gets an order of magnitude glow up by the end. :/

0 reposts55 likes

Andrew
@lesswrongmorekind.bsky.social

My work sells a device that can be reset by holding a button for at least 10s. So people write 12s, just to be sure. Then 20s to give leeway, people sometimes count too fast. When the instructions get up to 60s, someone will notice and correct it back down to 10s, and it starts over again!

Craig
@doozr.net

I once estimated that a bug fix would take a day. My manager padded it. His manager padded it. *His* manager padded it, and so on. By the time it reached the customer it had hit 6 months. They approved it. It actually only took half an hour to fix. Because I padded it.

Chapter 23
@chapter23.bsky.social

Who said capitalism was the most efficient way to do things? Maybe we just need flatter (direct as possible to customer) companies. I hope you don’t work in the government… if so you’re lucky Elon@xhitter isn’t on Bluesky.