Why Makers Cave Anyway

If meetings are so expensive, why do makers keep accepting them? Because the people scheduling them usually have power, and the maker's schedule is invisible to anyone who has never worked on it.

A boss on the manager's schedule sees an open calendar and books it. To them it looks costless. The maker can't easily object, because 'that meeting destroys my afternoon' sounds like whining to someone who does eight meetings a day and ships fine.

PG's point is that this isn't malice, it's a translation failure. Once both sides know there are two schedules, the conversation changes from 'why are you being difficult' to 'where should this go so it does the least damage.'