Underestimate Overestimate Quotes & Sayings

Most of us overestimate what we can accomplish in two years, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years. — Mark Batterson

You can concede to an opponent something he hasn't earned. It's one thing to underestimate an opponent. But maybe the worst thing is to overestimate. You always play your strengths. But that doesn't mean you become predictable. — Chuck Knox

Self-confidence is very important. If you don't think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. You see the opportunity but also greater limitations than you should. I have always believed in what I do on the chessboard, even when I had no objective reason to. It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them. — Magnus Carlsen

Determining when not to overestimate and when not to underestimate is a crucial skill that is not easily acquired. But it's unspeakably important to be able to know when not to underestimate, for example, another person's affections towards you; but then also when not to overestimate the same thing. If only we could all have radar that could tune into these two measures of living, we'd name it something like "humameter" or "give-a-shit-o-meter." Either way, unnamed or named, I've learned that this is among the most important skills accomplishable by mankind. Insecurities should not be allowed to dictate how we determine the amount of value another person has placed on us; fears should not be let in to tell us how much or how little of worth we have in someone else's eyes. — C. JoyBell C.

There was a survey done a few years ago that affected me greatly. it was discovered that intelligent people either estimate their intelligence accurately or slightly underestimate themselves, but stupid people overestimate their intelligence and by huge margins. (And these were things like straight up math tests, not controversial IQ tests.) — Harvey Pekar

God does not give us more than we can handle, I am told but I wonder if God doesn't overestimate me just a little. Or perhaps, and this is likely, I underestimate God. — Julia Cameron

Never underestimate your power to change yourself; never overestimate your power to change others. — Wayne W. Dyer

Entrepreneurs often underestimate costs and overestimate rewards. But the fact that they estimate & still take action sets them apart from peers. — Ryan Lilly

We usually overestimate what we think we can accomplish in one year-but we grossly underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. — Tony Robbins

A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults — Mario Puzo

From the moment we are born, boys and girls are treated differently.19 Parents tend to talk to girl babies more than boy babies.20 Mothers overestimate the crawling ability of their sons and underestimate the crawling ability of their daughters.21 Reflecting the belief that girls need to be helped more than boys, mothers often spend more time comforting and hugging infant girls and more time watching infant boys play by themselves. — Sheryl Sandberg

When forecasting the outcomes of risky projects, executives too easily fall victim to the planning fallacy. In its grip, they make decisions based on delusional optimism rather than on a rational weighting of gains, losses, and probabilities. They overestimate benefits and underestimate costs. They spin scenarios of success while overlooking the potential for mistakes and miscalculations. As a result, they pursue initiatives that are unlikely to come in on budget or on time or to deliver the expected returns - or even to be completed. In this view, people often (but not always) take on risky projects because they are overly optimistic about the odds they face. I will return to this idea several times in this book - it probably contributes to an explanation of why people litigate, why they start wars, and why they open small businesses. — Daniel Kahneman

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction. — Bill Gates

In business, we say that people overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in a decade. This is true in philanthropy as well. — Marc Benioff

A puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events. Overconfidence is fed by the illusory certainty of hindsight. — Daniel Kahneman

He claimed that there was no greater natural advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues. — Mario Puzo

People often overestimate what they can reasonably achieve in a year. But they vastly underestimate what they can achieve in 5 years. — Steve Pavlina

We underestimate the power of science, and overestimate the power of personal observation. A peer-reviewed, journal-published, replicated report is worth far more than what you see with your own eyes. Our own eyes can deceive us. People can fool themselves, hallucinate, and even go insane. The controls on publication in major journals are more trustworthy than the very fabric of your brain. If you see with your own eyes that the sky is blue, and Science says it is green, then sir, I advise that you trust in Science.
This is not what most scientists will tell you, of course; but I think it is pragmatically true. Because in real life, what happens is that your eyes have a little malfunction and decide that the sky is green, and science will tell you that the sky is blue. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

(J)ust as we tend to underestimate the role of luck in life in general, we tend to overestimate it in games of chance. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently. Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century writer who managed to be a prolific novelist while also revolutionizing the British postal system, observed, "A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules." Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity. — Gretchen Rubin

If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think. — Timothy Ferriss

We often overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a year. — Glen Smith

Most people overestimate others' talents and underestimate their own. — Orrin Woodward

We systematically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other. — Clay Shirky

Unfortunately, we generally find it difficult to assess very small probabilities. We typically overestimate them (thinking the events more likely than they are) and underestimate very high probabilities. — David J. Hand

The second illusion is historical myopia: the closer an era is to our vantage point in the present, the more details we can make out. Historical myopia can afflict both common sense and professional history. The cognitive psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman have shown that people intuitively estimate relative frequency using a shortcut called the availability heuristic: the easier it is to recall examples of an event, the more probable people think it is.10 People, for example, overestimate the likelihoods of the kinds of accidents that make headlines, such as plane crashes, shark attacks, and terrorist bombings, and they underestimate those that pile up unremarked, like electrocutions, falls, and drownings. — Steven Pinker

Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade! — Tony Robbins

It is as much of a mistake to underestimate yourself as to overestimate yourself. — Christie Golden

When you're leading, you're generally trying to lead change, and I think it was Roy Amara, who said about technology, "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run." And I think the same applies to change within an organization. — Harry West

You shouldn't underestimate an enemy, but it is just as fatal to overestimate him. — George S. Patton

We underestimate God and we overestimate evil. We don't see what God is doing and conclude that he is doing nothing. We see everything that evil is doing and think it is in control of everyone. — Eugene H. Peterson

Humans are terrible at predicting the future. We really overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do in the long term ... If we can glimpse even a couple of years into the future, even that's difficult to do. — Bill Maris

People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten. — Bill Gates

You always overestimate what you can get done in a year and underestimate what you can get done in 10 years. — Bill Gates

I've spent so much time making sure I don't underestimate my opponents that I've forgotten it's just as dangerous to overestimate them as well. — Suzanne Collins

Never underestimate yourself when you do what is right.
Never overestimate yourself when you do what is wrong. — Roy Bennett

(People) either overestimate Satan's influence and power, living with an inflated, erroneous perspective of his abilities. Or they underestimate him. They don't assign him any credit at all for the difficulties he's stirring up beneath the surface of our lives ... Satan is not God. And he is not God's counterpart or peer ... Satan is nothing but a copycat trying desperately to convince you he's more powerful than he actually is ... So even though he's given temporary clearance to strategize and antagonize, we don't need to pray from a position of fear or weakness against him ... But we can't expect to experience this power unless we're serious about joining the battle in prayer. — Priscilla Shirer

As Paul Saffo, a forecaster of large-scale change at Discern Analytics, observes wisely, 'Change is never linear. Our expectations are linear, but new technologies come in S curves, so we routinely overestimate short-term change and underestimate long-term change.' Never mistake a clear view for a short distance, he adds. — Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran

We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events. — Daniel Kahneman

So the 185 billion events to be enjoyed over our mortal days might be either an overestimate or an underestimate. If we consider the amount of data the brain could theoretically process, the number might be too low; but if we look at how people actually use their minds, it is definitely much too high. In any case, an individual can experience only so much. Therefore, the information we allow into consciousness becomes extremely important; it is, in fact, what determines the content and the quality of life. — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

We overestimate the event and underestimate the process. Every fulfilled dream occurred because of dedication to the process. — John C. Maxwell

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. — Bill Gates

Most people overestimate risk, failure and danger and underestimate the value of being curious. — Deepak Chopra

I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we're dealing with, and that we're not making a picture for Harvard Law School, we're making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people. — Billy Wilder

However, robust evidence shows that people systematically overestimate the probability of positive future contingencies, and underestimate the probability of negative ones - only those who are depressed or dysphoric come to accurate assessments. — Daniel Nettle

We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. — Roy Amara

Here were two undeniable truths in the Realms: It was very easy to overestimate a drow and even easier to underestimate a dwarf. — R.A. Salvatore

To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating. — Eric Hoffer

People overestimate what they can accomplish in the near term and underestimate what they can accomplish in the long term. — David House

Don't underestimate your opponent, but don't overestimate them, either. — Nancy Pelosi

Most of us make two basic errors with respect to intelligence: 1. We underestimate our own brainpower. 2. We overestimate the other fellow's brainpower. — David J. Schwartz

Experience taught then and teaches now that blacks should never underestimate the level of violence that could be brought to bear against them by white authority, and that they should never overestimate the prospects for receiving understanding and support from white people. — Charles E. Cobb Jr.

Don't overestimate everyone else and underestimate yourself — Tanya Burr

Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have
and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up. — James Belasco And Ralph Stayer Flight Of The Buffalo 1994