> it comes at a high cost
In addition to what you mentioned, there is a hidden cost of responsibility. Once we advise people, they start holding us responsible for the result. Something goes wrong? It's now our fault.
In addition to what you mentioned, there is a hidden cost of responsibility. Once we advise people, they start holding us responsible for the result. Something goes wrong? It's now our fault.
Anything that doesn't do what they expect it's clearly your fault because you messed with it 8 months ago.
If I take the initiative to build something that I think will be helpful, or fix something that’s broken in someone else’s project, then I suddenly “own” that thing.
Which is ok, until I get 20 things piled on me that I now “own”, and I can no longer keep up with them all.
Suddenly I’m the impediment to getting anything done, because everyone turns from “collaborative problem solvers” into “users of my thing”, and when any of the things need more things added to it, then my “things” are no longer just tools to make their jobs better.
They are now, instead, obstacles somehow keeping everyone from doing the things they were managing to do (less efficiently and less comfortably) before.
Kind of like fixing computer stuff.
6 months later something completely unrelated breaks and it's obviously your fault because they can do no wrong and you were the last person messing with it.