33 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
33 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2026-04-29T20:25:22-0400
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title: 2026-04-29 20:25:22
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tags: []
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daily: "[[2026-04-29]]"
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---
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# 2026-04-29 20:25:22
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## Heterodox Construction Estimating
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As a lifelong pedant, hater, contrarian, etc.
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when I first heard of [[heterodoxy]]
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as applied to highly-opinionated professional disciplines
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I thought immediately of my own highly-opinionated discipline
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in [[construction-estimating]].
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The existence of a heterodoxy requires that of an orthodoxy,
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and I believe [[holt_2023_estimating]] is typical of it.
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Construction estimating is simply finding the optimal price for a service,
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a process necessary of all service industries,
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frequently stated to be more art than science.
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Orthodox estimators may parrot the same refrain,
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but their own process is neither art nor science.
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It's much more like doing taxes:
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prolonged, tedious, opaque, over-complicated,
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and ultimately resulting in a value that no one is satisfied with,
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but that they have no basis to question.
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Also like taxes,
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orthodox estimating methods are assumed obligatory,
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but you can actually do whatever you want.
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It's a free country, man.
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