@uberduck I'm not a coder, but as someone who largely writes academic prose for a living, the thing about using the execution of basic writing tasks as downtime to think about the next problem, and the value of internalizing an argument by executing it "by hand," make perfect sense to me. Being forced to work with a "tool" like that sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare.
@drhoopoe @uberduck For sure. Coding and serious writing have in common that you get much better results if you can hold the whole thing in your head, and at least for me, that requires dwelling in the small details.
I very often have the experience that however much I plan or research in advance, it's only in the act of writing that some of the pennies drop. That I see more deeply, or find a better way through.
The notion that we can automate that mental work strikes me as managerialist foolishness. Wishful thinking from people who often act without real understanding, and think everybody else should too.
All of this!
And having to check if it is correct takes So_Much_Time. Plus it means having to switch heads to try to understand why it would do a particular thing that might not even be what's really needed.
Your situation made me sigh, and I fully understand going home early. The fact they force you to use something that doesn't even care about the company is telling. All for money 😭 While people like you really care and think of what's actually needed.