Why the hell can't PMs understand "it's complicated" without asking for an explanation? EVERY time any dev has said that and they ask why, guess what follows?

Technical jargon they don't get.

Do they think we're lazy and trying to wiggle out of work? Do they not trust us? Do they think explaining it to them will somehow provide some insight that will make it less complicated?

Argh

"Your car is broken."
"Damn. What is broken?"
"Sorry, I can't explain it to you. It's complicated."
"Can't you try to simplify it?!"
"Nope. Also it will cost 500 bucks."
"..."

@Makenshi Cars are far less complicated than programming. Manuals and trouble shooting are very straightforward, while programming has infinite variables that you, or someone else made.

@DLMousey
I think it's part of our job to be able to abstract our work for non-technical coworkers.
I get that you can't abstract everything to simple terms. But more often then not this isn't even necessary.
Most project managers I worked with simpy wanted to know why my estimate for certain points was so high.
IMO it's his job to ask such questions.
I get the the point of OP if the pm act like an ignorant and dismisses your technical opinion.
But the simple question to justify your estimate shouldn't be such a problem for a developer.

@Wallpaper The analogy is more to illustrate my point. But also, I don't think so. Changing a wheel or something like that? Sure. But changing some internal parts of a car? That's not as trivial as you try to make it.

@DLMousey off topic but I heard this way of explaining how password hashing works that most people understand (if they understand math):

imagine a password gets reduced to just numbers, like "abcdefg" gets computed to be "1234567". Now split it down the middle and multiply the two numbers together: "1234 * 567 = 699678". Now given that the result is in the database, how would you determine the original password?

I actually think mechanics and automotive engineers are not that different intellectually. they are problem solvers. they have the same drive in life basically.

@Makenshi you're right, and I always do try to explain, I'm just raving.

I'm just over being on constant trial in my current team.

They push back to every estimate I give, despite my history of being right, and I swear they go high five each other for being such clever negotiators. Then tasks run over estimate and expect devs to put in overtime to catch up.

It's toxic, and I wish they'd just trust me sometime.

@stisch I was in that situation not that long ago, and ended up being pushed out of the company due to politics at play on my team (and I was the lead front-end dev!). It was stressful and toxic for sure, but in a much better position now at a different company. My advice, if you want it, is to start looking for a different job. My experience is those situations aren't usually salvageable if team members are intentionally trying to attack your credibility like that.

I agree with you bro. But part of advancement in our profession is learning to communicate with non-technical people.

Get a new contract that says you get paid a dollar(or euro) for every word in an explanation