Some of the best career advice I got was very early on at my first gig - I had a designer tell me, over a cup of sake, that I should just inflate all my estimates by 60%. 30% to cover the stuff I hadn’t thought of, 30% to cover what they hadn’t thought of.

That sounded insane to me… nearly two decades later, with plenty of remote freelance and full time onsite team experience under my belt… and I fully agree. It’s always going to take significantly longer, and if you pretend it’s not, it’s going to come down on your head, like it or not. Always better to underpromise and overdeliver than the other way around.