> to look like geniuses when they solve ahead of schedule
No, it is because estimating software tasks is difficult, the penalty for underestimating is that people think you are dishonest/flakey, and there isn't anywhere to get an education in how to do it well. The default advice given to junior engineers is therefore: "take your intuition and triple it." I hate that this is the state of the industry. My interactions around estimation over the past 5 years since uni have literally made me feel nauseated and near fainting on multiple occasions. I would love for Joel or Klamezius or Uncle Bob or someone else to fix it and produce a good course on how to create estimates.