Give me an estimate!!
The key problem to all my failed endeavors
I remember waiting out the Principals cabin, anxious to get approval for conducting an event for the student community as part of a technical club.
He shook his head in disapproval listening to our proposal of what our event was to offer. “You two, listen carefully” he said, “I always give approval for student lead events but what I observe is the actions are limited to a season, or personal development. Rarely is anything done for the development of the college. And there is a lot of enhancement that can be made!”
We continued to listen to his dream for the institution. “Most parents who come for admission of their students are in a conflicted state when they see the limited size of the institution. When they use the washroom, they emerge feeling the place is not good for the children. Now what if you students developed an automatic flushing system using sensors using your engineering skills? If done well, they will leave the washroom feeling hopefully about the community that their child will be joining”
Yes, you could argue that isn’t it the colleges responsibility to ensure basic amenities are met?, I would like to think that the responsibility of quality maintenance should lie on everyone who use the service as we all have an equal role to play. Anyway, back to Principal Sir’s words.
“You could develop a management system for the college office to upgrade the existing paper-based system. Or work on the centralized printer system for students that work on a credit system. I propose these ideas but what I always face are: (1) Uncommitted students who do not stick till the end, and (2) Inability to provide an estimate at each stage of development”
Its been nearly two years since he said these things but I still remember the essence he tried to say. Yes, it is important to develop oneself but legacy happens when we leave a better system for the ones to come next. Instead of cribbing of a flawed system that we had, we should aim to bridge the gap and pass on the baton with every generation.
But that line of thought is a discussion for another time (hopefully another write-up). What interests me for this write up is his second point: How to provide an estimate.
If you have read my past write up, you might realize how I think of ideas and try to work towards it but fail miserably. Sometimes it has to do with my lack of persistence, other times the inability to effectively communicate with the team I form.
But the root problem that I have come to realize is that I am incapable of giving an estimate. You can make an estimate only when you have a measuring system or a metric to estimate with.
How do you develop this knowledge of a metric system? You should develop that intuition from experience working on hobby projects — something that I severely lack even today. You cannot be a good captain without understanding the turmoils faced by your sailors.
Thus, several of my supposedly cool ideas have come to a standstill because I do not have the skill to provide an estimate. If you asked me how long it would take to build the app (and accordingly draft a schedule), I would be clueless because I do not have the knowledge of the process involved in between. In fact, I tend to judge others without understanding that point of view thus proving to be an unworthy analyzer.
But here is the paradox: It takes time to develop this skill. And even then, you are unsure when you are ready to apply it for developing systems. Time is irreplaceable because it is important for you to experience the toil and remember the feeling in the future. However, I find most folks develop themselves without much community perspective in mind and thus result in a system where students are good at their skills because of their on effort, not necessarily and external support.
Or I could be wrong. My whole assessment could be wrong, for who am I to judge? The ability to estimate is one that is quite often underestimated by managers and easily overestimated by workers. I hope you gain enough exposure to when it is time to step up and improve our college, if you happen to be from the same institution. Cheers.
