Funny, when I was trying to formulate a theory in my mind I was thinking of the phrase "vicious cycle". I was close enough, I think:)
I'm wondering if it's because Canadians and other countries with similar environments have been conditioned to exercise a different muscle: getting and retaining public funding. The incentive there is to under-promise and deliver/over-deliver, or at least appear to be delivering or over-delivering on paper. It's like that because the public judges are often much less knowledgeable and are forced to judge you on what you said you were going to do on your initial proposal and you're often times forced to start working before any money is deposited in your bank account.
In Roberts reply to my comment above, he mentioned I factor I thought was a 40-60% contributor, I'd say your observed factor is a contributor, and if I was asked to assign a value I'd say between 10-30%. I should probably write a blog post/phd on this.
Funny, when I was trying to formulate a theory in my mind I was thinking of the phrase "vicious cycle". I was close enough, I think:)
I'm wondering if it's because Canadians and other countries with similar environments have been conditioned to exercise a different muscle: getting and retaining public funding. The incentive there is to under-promise and deliver/over-deliver, or at least appear to be delivering or over-delivering on paper. It's like that because the public judges are often much less knowledgeable and are forced to judge you on what you said you were going to do on your initial proposal and you're often times forced to start working before any money is deposited in your bank account.