I learned many years ago of the 90/90 Rule.  Seems it was a corollary
to Murphy's Law.  The rule simply states that 90% of a job shall take
90% of the time, while the last 10% shall consume 90%, too.

Damned accurate.

Karl Wolz

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:07 PM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
>> you simply come up with a measure of how long it should
>> reasonably take, double that and go to the next unit of time.
>> Example: Replacing a hose should take three minutes. 3 x 2 = 6 hours.
>
> My wife has developed a similar formula for when she asks me how long
> something (Vanagon or otherwise) will take:
> "It'll take 5 minutes" means "one hour"
> "and hour" means "the rest of the day"
> "a couple days" means "two weeks"
> and
> "I'll have that blown engine swapped out in a month" means "OMG that
> Vanagon is never going to run again, is it!"
>
> It's odd, because when I'm quoting time to do a job for a customer, I
> can nail the time almost spot-on every time; but when it's one of my
> own projects, my optimism completely overwhelms that skill...
>
> The engine swap only took 5 months.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
> '90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"
>