Figuring out something quickly by just using estimates to the closest power of ten, because sometimes you just want to know if the thing you're doing is worth or is gonna cost ten bucks, a hundred, or a cool grand.
Named after
Fermi Estimation, a trick used by
Enrico Fermi to wow his fellow nerds at parties by estimating shit without knowing 100% everything about the problem, sometimes without even writing
shit down. You're not going to get exact numbers, but you're gonna get close enough.
Most notably, dude estimated the power of a fucking nuclear bomb by just dropping papers as the bomb went off and measuring how far the
shockwave moved that shit — and he was only off by a bit.
Example:
Okay, so we don't know what the price of the stuff is — fuck it, just assume it's ten bucks, fermi it and we'll
call the guy when he wakes up, we just need to know if this gonna make us
big bucks or to just
forget about it.