Intelligent Estimation

"This way of thinking will help you learn in one year, what took me two, or twenty!"

- from the book "The Art of Insight: Mastering Complexity" 

Wouldn't it be fun to be in a class where the greatest emphasis is laid on "how you think", rather than the exact answer as printed on the back of your prescribed book? Why is this even important? Why do we need to sharpen this very essential skill - as essential as breathing, reading, and writing? 

Leaders - in business/ science/ government/ and in many other disciplines - create impact through how well they are able to respond to critical situations, where there is no obvious answer, and they do not have all the input information they need.

Estimation has always been a core skill, and has become even more so in the 21st century where Google can provide answers at the click of a button.  Facts or ideas children learn are often disparate and unconnected. To create meaning and have long-lasting learning, the pieces of knowledge should support each other through their connections. A habit like estimation, exercised regularly, activates the connections between facts and ideas and solidifies them in the learner’s mind. You can read more about this at our blog post here. 

On this course, students will learn how to make 'intelligent' approximations, through ‘order of magnitude’ estimates. 

They will be led to attempt an assortment of estimation tasks; after attempting these tasks, they will discuss what assumptions were made, how "reasonable" they were, and how underestimates and overestimates could be corrected. Read about the facilitator's experience in this blog post about the last edition of the course.

We can steer the course in any direction that the participants would like to - towards approaching business problems, or those in governance, or in Science!