The Metric Law of 90s

Thanks to Bruce F. Webster, who reminded me of this hoary old saying:

The first 90 percent of a development project takes 90 percent of the schedule.

The remaining 10 percent of the project takes the other 90 percent of the schedule.

Note (15 April 2010) - discovered this is also known as the Ninety-ninety Rule

Experience

This notion puzzled me for some time: Have you got X years' experience [cooking, programming computers, running a business], or one year, repeated X times?


Simply, have you grown? Are you doing something new this year, something you couldn't have comprehended X years ago? Did you acquire a new skill, learn a new point of view, make a new friend, visit a new place?

If not, you're on the hamster wheel. Time to bail out.