zlacker

> I agree. I see it all the time. Huge amounts of hours being wasted "working hard", and running away from answering the real questions which would double the (positive) output in half the time.

I think a lot of times we are put in boxes, and our roles are pretty heavily constrained, such that we do not have the power to "answer the real questions." Raise your hand anyone who's had this conversation with their manager:

Manager: "Dev, I'd like you to take more responsibility, be transformational, be a 'force multiplier' for the team!"

Dev: "OK, let me make major architectural decisions without having to get approval from three levels of managers."

Manager: "Uh, wait..."

Dev: "Let me hire and fire, and build up a team of direct reports."

Manager: "Hold up..."

Dev: "Give me a budget to spend on tools, training, contractors, and so on."

Manager: "Whoa, whoa, whoa.. I didn't mean that transformational..."

>>ryandr+(OP)
Not quite that extreme but yea. I've had those conversations.

> Working on X but Y is a blocker

> Okay, I can do some work with Y to help get unblocked

> No we'll let A (on a different team, maybe a different contracted studio) deal with it, here's tiny widget Z to work on in the meantime

Sometimes it means well, sometimes it feels like they don't value your expertise nor care about fostering growth. And sometimes it's just politics (especially when working with multiple different companies and contractors and all that).