---
id: 2025-07-18_estimating-isnt-engineering
aliases: []
title: 2025-07-18
tags:
  - authorship/original
  - destiny/permanent
  - status/incomplete
  - topic/construction
  - topic/estimating
  - type/anecdote
---
# 2025-07-18

## 2025-07-18 --- "Estimating Isn't Engineering"

#topic/estimating

A peer recently expressed frustration to me
about the declining quality of construction drawings,
specifically how systems are often missing details
necessary to price the scope definitively.
Specifically, they took issue with having to
"be both the estimator and the engineer".
This puzzled me because the examples they gave
sounded like stereotypical estimation problems.

%% TODO: Include example %%

%%
TODO: discussion based on the difference between engineering,
(which requires knowledge of subject matter)
and estimation
(which requires knowledge of ~~impact~~).
%%

It's not engineering to budget for the most likely case.

Estimators need not know _why_ there tends to be ~~example~~,
they need need only have basis for applying that generalization to another project.
