> Part of the whole 10x package is getting the manager on board and increasing trust, not going behind their back.

People are acting like everyone's rational, and all you need to do is just explain things properly. But that's not often the case.

Also, if you have to explain things to someone all the time, it starts getting uncomfortable for everyone.

It doesn't matter if your manager is rational or not. Establishing trust and being a good coworker also means getting them on board on an emotional level. If this is something that you cannot do yet, then this is definitely a skill worth polishing.

>Part of the whole 10x package is getting the manager on board and increasing trust, not going behind their back.

It's a bit of column A and a bit of column B. Organizational politics often blocks productivity. Often the it's better to ask forgiveness than permission is quite effective so long as you're reasonably astute about how much political capital you have, how much you will make from the move and how much you will spend by the move. Other times it's the ability to build consensus and gain buy in to remove the organizational roadblocks is what can really be a force multiplier.

Both of these dynamics are at play.

You say,

> “This is straight up the opposite of what they're describing”

but then your supporting quote below that suggests the opposite. The quote about cutting scope (from a product manager’s point of view) is about cutting useful scope, like paying down urgent tech debt, in order to cram in more features or hit a shorter artificial shipping deadline despite no actual impact on any bottom line.

My supporting quote is describing a developer who pushes back against bad requirements to find a better solution, not someone who just acquieses to what product managers want.