If you're regularly unable to make even a single line change as an IC, your team will probably not be at a loss.
Some of my biggest breakthroughs have been far away from a computer, but I can easily understand where the OP is coming from: give yourself a chance to make tangible contribution each day, and maybe it snowballs into something more.
Maybe it doesn't and that's ok, but at least give yourself the chance for it to.
(It also says something to read the OP and not be able to imagine any interpretation other than "they just don't understand how work is done")
Equalling "tangible contributions" to "git commits" is insanely reductionist. It works maybe if everything your org does - tickets, documentation, manuals, analyses, meeting transcripts, research notes, everything - lives in git, but otherwise, you're just asking to lower the quality of your org's organization and work culture for the sake of hitting made up KPIs.
- regularly unable: When you're an IC, there's plenty of non-code contributions needed but if it's so fantastically wild that you should regularly contribute code, something might be off.
- not be able to imagine any interpretation: the article literally says it now, but any half charitable reading already covers a productive day of non-code work. There's just still something to be said for making "butt in chair in front of editor" time.
If there's so much "other" taking your time in an organization that this seems onerous, it might be all the more reason to push for that time or question why that is.
Some of my biggest breakthroughs have been far away from a computer, but I can easily understand where the OP is coming from: give yourself a chance to make tangible contribution each day, and maybe it snowballs into something more.
Maybe it doesn't and that's ok, but at least give yourself the chance for it to.
(It also says something to read the OP and not be able to imagine any interpretation other than "they just don't understand how work is done")