I think I do this because it is more fun. Involving lots of other people, especially non-engineers, really can suck the fun out of programming for me. I'm not a

I think I do this because it is more fun. Involving lots of other people, especially non-engineers, really can suck the fun out of programming for me. I'm not antisocial - I love to discuss what I'm doing and bounce ideas around with other IC engineers. But PM/management incentives are generally aligned towards viewing exploratory work as a waste of time; it might be, but it's what makes programming fun, so if I don't get to do it, I will kind of just consider quitting. Of course, there are times for exploration and times for execution, but to be happy at work, I think most people need to have (and deserve) a mix. I'm sure the PM and engineering lead and the company in general would prefer that I produce small deliverables on a frequent cadence, for a variety of reasons: (1) to make sure I'm doing work and not goofing off, (2) to provide better visibility to higher-ups about progress towards an ultimate goal, (3) to encourage me to prioritize delivering finished products over say personal learning, work-life balance, etc. I hope I don't sound too rabidly anti-work, but when I look for jobs, I pretty much prioritize the autonomy that management will give me over most other factors; nothing really sucks the joy out of programming quite like being told to break your work into "smaller tasks" so the burndown chart is prettier.