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by mac01021 3122 days ago
It's actually a comedic reference to an earlier conversation between Scotty and Kirk from the 3rd Star Trek movie.

(https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Star_Trek_III:_The_Search_for_...) see the first bit of dialogue in this page.

Also I don't think it makes him seem like a bureaucrat. I'm no manager. I'm an engineer at the bottom of the org chart, but I still need to deliver estimates to my supervisor. And even if I'm an exceptional engineer, I can choose to estimate the time required for a task as though I were merely average.