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How I estimate work as a staff software engineer
(www.seangoedecke.com)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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Programming
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bruh, so it's not me who was stupid all this time for not being able to put an estimate for large initiatives. It always feels forced to give an estimate.
Definitely not just you! This author is 100% right.
One of the main jobs of a software developer is continually trying to convince people estimates are kind of stupid.
If we already knew exactly how to build something, we would have built it already.
The whole point is that it doesn’t exist, and there are a lot of inherent risks when building something that doesn’t already exist! Like, duh.
The issue, of course, is that everyone not in software thinks it’s like traditional manufacturing and not research and development.