Meetings are not a waste but they are costly to ICs because they interrupt our context, and recovering from context switch is expensive.

The unit of work for a manager is a meeting because they need to coordinate.

The IC is more of an execution role which requires sustained concentration.

If managers don’t understand this difference and call for meetings willynilly, they are actually costing the company productivity.

Regular syncs are important so that people are working on the right thing but people also need time to work.

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html