I'd rather delay for an estimate than give something I'm not confident in. I'm most confident in estimations I've had time to think over, instead of trying to b

I'd rather delay for an estimate than give something I'm not confident in. I'm most confident in estimations I've had time to think over, instead of trying to ballpark something. If I can ballpark something, it's usually because I happen to have done it before or it's an otherwise easy problem. I don't know why one is considered a superpower over the other though (superpower is often a code word for "skills I wish everyone had because I have them"). When your loose estimations propagate to others, there's always a chance of it being taken out of context too. If it's only you and a single person as your client in the conversation, usually things won't be taken out of context. If it's a larger org, it might become more than just an estimate. This might even be framed as optimistic estimates vs. pessimistic estimates. One is faster but more error-prone, the other slower but more accurate. Different tools for different situations.