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I don’t think Big Tech needs to overtax its engineers to deliver innovation. They can afford to hire enough folks to keep the innovation engine humming without requiring heroics from ICs.

I understand there are some exceptions: sometimes during outages/emergencies, you do want folks to fix issues ASAP regardless of how long they are up.

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You can just barely story point, Gantt chart, and JIRA ticket your way through routine CRUD development. I don’t think too much innovation is happening that way. Innovation in my experience comes from “off the books” deep dives by individuals, pairs, and occasionally groups as big as 3-5. It comes from going into territory that is not well defined, doesn’t have predictable timelines, and is otherwise anathema to formal BigCo project management and communication structures.

Absolutely, but you can do all that without heroics.

Work done outside the formal assignment and tracking processes is normally what I would consider “heroics.”

I don’t think innovation hums, it bursts.

The opera singer shatters the wine glass with a humming

Mine itches.

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