Selling is probably the most important thing you do in any professional job. You sell your managers, your peers, your clients, your partners. Some people cynica

Selling is probably the most important thing you do in any professional job. You sell your managers, your peers, your clients, your partners. Some people cynically call it "playing politics." Now if you don't want to do all that I suggest you treat programming as a more "artistic" pursuit where you can pursue your passions making whatever your mind can think up, and try making money doing something else you're better at selling. Who knows, maybe given the freedom to program outside of a corporation you'll wind up creating something amazing that has companies beating down your door.