(Not the OP, but this question does resonate...) It's a good set of questions to keep in mind, but I'm not sure it always leads to a feasible course of action.

(Not the OP, but this question does resonate...) It's a good set of questions to keep in mind, but I'm not sure it always leads to a feasible course of action. What I like is working independently on a gnarly problem for some extended period of time. That explicitly includes spending the odd day "spinning my wheels" without being immediately being pushed to ask others for help -- because bumping my head against stuff while working alone is the way I like to learn stuff. This way of working seems to be under fairly vigorous attack in favour of "everything needs a team", and I'm not quite sure how to work around that. Just pointing out that I'm getting things done does not seem to be sufficient.