The Time Audit
A reflective essay setting the honest hours the setup cost against the honest benefit it returned
Due: 28 May 2027 · Weight: 10%
The course’s closing argument, written by you about yourself. Ricing is sold as productivity; this essay tests the claim against the arithmetic.
The brief#
Account honestly for the hours this setup cost you, and say plainly what they bought.
The customised desktop is the most elaborate method ever devised for not doing any work, and its trick is that it feels exactly like working. This essay asks you to see through that in your own case. Estimate the hours, sort them into the ones that will pay themselves back, the ones that bought only the pleasure of the doing, and the ones that were procrastination in a terminal, and then say what you actually think about the total.
What you submit#
A short reflective essay. It is not marked on reaching a particular verdict, and “it was worth every hour” is as acceptable a conclusion as “I would take most of them back”, provided the accounting behind it is honest and the number is one you can defend.
The spec
The brief poses the problem and leaves room for a response. The spec is the fixed part: what a marker checks. Some lines can be checked mechanically; the rest call for judgement.
- submitted as a short reflective essay with a defensible estimate of hours
- it separates hours that will pay themselves back from hours that will not
- it reaches an honest conclusion rather than a comfortable one
How it is marked
The essay is judged on the honesty and clarity of its accounting, meaning whether it puts a real number on the hours, distinguishes time that saved time from time that bought only pleasure, and reaches a conclusion it is willing to stand behind rather than a tidy moral.