Sure, the author needs to write things down; often commit messages and block comments are enough, sometimes more is needed. If anything we are heavily under-inv

Sure, the author needs to write things down; often commit messages and block comments are enough, sometimes more is needed. If anything we are heavily under-invested in solo documentation-writing. What drives me up the wall is starting a long, formal document and having a bunch of meetings about it, seeking input and consensus from 10+ people and committees, for something with the scope of a couple days. That process is designed for large, multi-engineer-month new systems, or decisions that will be hard to back out of and have ramifications for hundreds of people over years. But I often see junior engineers putting the wheels in motion for basic day-to-day maintenance and feature iteration tasks. It doesn't help that our promotion process incentives this heavily, because it generates lots of evidence for the committee to evaluate.