Definitionv1

Planning fallacy: the systematic cognitive bias toward

Planning fallacy: the systematic cognitive bias toward optimism when estimating future task duration, where people consistently underestimate time requirements not from carelessness but from structural features of human cognition

Why This Is a Definition

Genus: systematic cognitive bias. Differentia: optimism in duration estimation, structural not careless.

Source Lessons

L-0828

Time estimation skills

Most people underestimate how long tasks take — not because they are careless, but because human cognition is systematically biased toward optimism when imagining future work. Estimation is a skill that improves only through deliberate practice: estimate, track actual time, compare, recalibrate, repeat.

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