There's been a number of threads on HN throughout the years that pointed out a big difference in estimation responses to the following questions. "how long wil

There's been a number of threads on HN throughout the years that pointed out a big difference in estimation responses to the following questions. "how long will this take?" vs "how long did something like this take previously?" I'm not sure the source of the research, but general consensus is that asking someone to remember something leads to more accurate answers. I try to do this internally now even if someone phrases the question the first way. I find it leads me to give better answers as well.