Comment by aaronbaugher
Comment by aaronbaugher a day ago
I think it's easy for the decision-makers to take programming talent for granted because they can't see it or estimate what it can do. If my manager comes to me with a task, he may not even know if the task is possible. If it turns out to be relatively simple and I kick out the solution in an hour, he's impressed, but he's also "learned" this this stuff is easier than he thought. That shifts his mental window of what's possible in X hours. Every time he thinks, "That must have been easy after all," the more he's likely to devalue what he thinks the work should cost. A smart manager will know better, but many don't.
We could combat that tendency by taking a longer time than necessary on some tasks, basically loafing to make our work look harder, but who wants to play that game?
Instead of loafing, you could also collect more context. Talk to various stakeholders to better understand the context of the problem. Read about company policies or market developments that made this necessary.
Boring stuff, I admit (the reading at least; I enjoy talking to stakeholders), but it can give you a much deeper understanding of what you're working on.