Years ago a group of seamen, known as privateers sailed out of the West Indian ports in the Carribean.

They had ‘letters of marque’ issued by the English and Dutch governments, which allowed the privateers to attack Spanish ships in the Caribbean. The captured ships and treasure were shared between their governments and the privateers. The privateers were not pirates; oh, no – they had a letter of authority.

However, after a while, the privateers took to attacking Spanish cities in the Caribbean. Now, here is the thing I call the ‘pirate captives dilemma’, and I will go on to show how it applies to modern consulting professional engineers.

We must first understand how the privateers/pirates operated. They would besiege and capture a town, with inhabitants. From the inhabitants, they wanted gold, silver and diamonds. Now, consider the average inhabi- tant, say call him Joe. He knows that the pirates want his wealth. Say he drops it down a well for safety. When the pirates arrive, they question Joe, saying, where’s the cash, buddy? If Joe says he has none, they tie him on a rack and light matches between his toes until he says, Uh, down the well.

Thus, throwing it down the well and staying mum was a bad strategy since Joe lost his stash and was tortured. However, if the pirates arrive and ask, where’s the cash, buddy, and Joe says, hey, down the well, my bro. They will not believe him – it is too easy. So, they will torture him anyway but more than they would have since they have to have him in pitiful agony before they believe there is no more. Another bad strategy – he loses the dosh and gets more tortured than if he had put up a show of resistance.

The best strategy is to put some cash under the bed, some down the well and some in the chimney. He reveals the stuff under the bed, and under light torture, the other two locations.

This is the ‘pirate captives dilemma’. It applies to modern consulting professional engineers in this way: in general, experienced engineers can see at a snap what is required on a project and what it will probably cost. Normally, they can get within a few percent of the cost within a few days. But this is reality – I am a consulting engineer and I have Joe’s problem. If I go to a design meeting and suggest that the design is complicated and say “I’ll have to work on it and get back to you”, then I will be pushed by the quantity surveyor to work overtime to produce an accurate, cost-effective design with a budget that is 100% accurate. I can drag this out but will have to attend meetings with the quantity surveyor for the next few weeks to try to get the budget further down when this cannot be achieved (that is, like Joe, being tortured for more money when there is none).

If I say, at the meeting, well, this is not too difficult, I will give you a design by the end of the week. With a 100% accurate budget, then the quantity surveyor thinks it is all too easy and will take the budget and, having reduced the design time, we will have meetings for the next month to try to get the budget down when this cannot be achieved (that is, like Joe, being even more tortured for more money when there is none).

So, the best is the third strategy: to suggest that the design is complicated and say “I’ll have to work on it and get back to you” and then give the quantity surveyor a false budget which is 300% too high. Then I get pushed by the quantity surveyor to work overtime to produce an accurate, cost-effective design with a 100% accurate budget. Then, with each meeting (that is, like Joe, period of torture) I give up a little more until the budget goes down 200% to where it would have to be under all circumstances. So, same treasure, less torture.

But oh! It should not be so. And quantity surveyors are not pirates – no, no, no. Privateers? I didn’t say that.