(2025-11-09) Barnett The Programming Time Chasm

Olivia Barnett: The Programming Time Chasm. It is shocking how, after three jobs as a software engineer, I still always underestimate how much time a task will take me. I don’t think I am this bad at estimating in other aspects of my life.

Even with AI — which has dramatically, indelibly changed the nature of my job — programming eats up hours like nothing else I know. I think this is one of the major friction points between Product types and Engineers. It is relatively straightforward to describe what a product should look like, but the mechanics of how are often unknown until the developer rolls up his sleeves and begins to wrestle with the code.

This was my experience today. Blaine and I are still working on the waitlist, which is nearly done, but we decided to add a little specialness to it — something that could make it a bit more shareable and potentially viral. This quick decision sparked a rabbit hole of others and our day went by without us even stopping for lunch.

This black hole of time presented by engineering, however, is not something I actually dislike, strangely enough. I only dislike it when I have spent hours on something I thought would take one hour and I don’t care about what I am building. (Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose)