I assume the Trisolarins were taking a little poetic licence there. I was being hyperbolic. I don't remember the author being specific about the timeline but I had the impression the cataclysms came on pretty quickly (much too quickly to be explained by errors building up, I would think they would constantly update their calculations with their observed track so significant errors should always remain well into the future), and they were just trying to get several months, maybe a year, of warning so they could cache some things that would give them a headstart next time around. Why they didn't just have that all the time, i don't recall that being explained. I guess short-sighted politicians are universal.

Are you just going to keep moving the goalposts and nitpicking my characterizations, or answer the question? Do you think the author understands the basic concept of the three-body problem?

I assume you have an opinion on it because you stuck your nose in here. Or did you just want to throw out an "um ackchyually"?