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by gedy 1590 days ago
Also been in this industry for 20+ years, at 5-6 companies, and feel same.

I hate to sound so cynical, but the only people I've see jazzed about meetings are business types who are uncertain what they want in the product, and engineering talks them through reality of "well we could do this or that", and sometimes it results it clarity and excitement for them, e.g. "Yes! Okay!"

1 comments

This is a pattern that has always been there but it seems to be a lot worse for some reason in the age of video conferences:

1. Business types: "Is {vague and half-baked feature idea} feasible?" 2. Engineer: "Why yes, it's not a perpetual motion machine so I think it should be feasible." 3. Business types: "Okay, great. So we can expect it to be shipped next week?" 4. Engineer: "Well first we would want more detailed specs and we're waiting for an API we need from another team and we have three other projects that we are finishing up to ship next week..." 5. Business types: "We need this feature next week so let's schedule another 45 minute meeting with 15 people to figure out how we can get this done by next week."

OMG yes. I can never understand the teams that think “Why yes, more meetings to talk about how to do this thing with a sudden deadline” is a good idea. Unfortunately, my experience has shown that people on these teams work nights and weekends to actually get the thing done, and then gloat about how much they’re working, since that’s what everyone else in the org does (and is rewarded on to some extent)
Hahaha this reads like a comedy sketch :D Experienced developers I've met are quite adept at managing expectations, so this is only an issue if you get thrown into a senior role far too early in your career.