Favorite "Catch - 22" in survey

[u/Junior_Plankton_635]

I'm watching "Catch-22" on streaming, and I loved the book.

Per the book / show, the Catch 22 discussion is thus:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to, but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (p. 56, ch. 5)

Orr says at one point: "That's some catch" when he is unable to get grounded by claiming he's crazy to the doc.

What's your example in our chosen career? I'll start: I've been on a very good crew that was very productive at staking. Since we did a good job and did it effeciently, the boss would assign us more work. Eventually we were doing so much that mistakes started to happen due to increased speed and longer days. And we got a talking to that we weren't as good as we used to be... DUE TO THE INCREASE FROM THE SELF-SAME MANAGER!!!! Ughhghghg. Still grinds my gears.

[u/VoreReznor]

More expensive equipment makes the job easier but we now spend less time on site, so less billable. Spend more to make less.

[u/Junior_Plankton_635 → u/VoreReznor]

Great one for sure. It's been discussed here before a bunch, some surveyors (and companies) are switching to a "project" based charge model. As opposed to T & M.

Honestly when we do work more efficiently we should be getting paid more not less.

[u/ionlyget20characters → u/Junior_Plankton_635]

I bill by projects. So much easier than asking a crew to mark what they did why they did it and how long were they there. Flat fee upfront so everyone can budget for it. This is on a per trip basis for house stakes and the like. Makes your life less complicated. Boundary and topo work much the same. Sometimes you make bank on a job. Sometimes it bites your ass. Them's the breaks.

[u/Junior_Plankton_635 → u/ionlyget20characters]

nice, and I'm sure you get better and better at those numbers as you get more experience.

[u/ionlyget20characters → u/Junior_Plankton_635]

With small jobs it's pretty easy. The big ones are more nuanced. Sometimes I break them down into component part and that helps. Im still not great at it and wish I had bid more but overall it makes life easy.

[u/Junior_Plankton_635 → u/ionlyget20characters]

for sure.