> There is no evidence that you get better economic outcomes from micromanaging software engineers, and not for the lack of trying.

Thats not really the point that my reply was addressing. Software production almost always takes place within a wider context of economic activity: product launch activities need to be scheduled, server capacity needs to be provisioned, hardware needs to be produced and assembled, people need to be paid out of budgets, etc. I'm a dev and I hate being micromanaged, but usually people really do need to know when the code will be done.

Not so much for mathematicians proving conjectures. Which is nice for them. I guess.