>> The most common objection is that writing proposals is “a waste of time” compared to writing code.

> The extra time spent writing is actually spent thinking.

Common theme for decades is "we can save a few days of planning with just a few weeks of programming".

But then there's the darker realization that sometimes the people you are working for are incapable of reasoning about planning artefacts or understanding how the system will look or operate simply from a document. So you need to present the system in small iterative chunks and repeatedly re-align expectations with reality: Agile.

And sometimes you genuinely need to do exploratory work which doesn't fit into a planning framework - actual research!

> sometimes the people you are working for are incapable of reasoning about planning artefacts or understanding how the system will look or operate simply from a document

I’m wrestling with this now. Over my career I’ve seen a strong correlation between good writers and good software engineers, but not everyone fits this mold. Shorter cycles and more chances for communication and feedback are helpful here.