> Another way to frame this topic: intelligence doesn't always lead to impact, and impact is what matters. Which leads to the example of my career, and the ill

> Another way to frame this topic: intelligence doesn't always lead to impact, and impact is what matters. Which leads to the example of my career, and the illustration of the two "tech worlds" that now exist. As a "programming engineer," I've written a lot of software tools for other engineers that have expanded the boundaries of what was possible to achieve in usual timeframes. I've (mostly) worked as a programmer in engineering departments, and once the word of these kinds of projects get out, they often get shut down or taken over by IT proper. This has happened either because MY management was psychopathic, or OTHER management was MORE psychopathic. As a single full-stack developer, I've proven multiple times that I can launch a company-wide-impacting project at 100x the man-speed of a bog standard, outsourced, waterfall-managed IT project. I suspect embarrassment at this fact is why my projects have had such terrible luck politically. And this is my point: the human side -- the politics -- will always trump talent. If you don't "grease the wheels," you're going to have a bad time. > Luckily I had a job that disabused me of this and taught me to communicate my ideas clearly and persuasively to others. I have found it even worse than this. Despite clarity, people often hate feeling like you understand things at a level they will never. Sometimes, it's the clarity itself that puts people on their heels. Case in point: My boss and I just asked a group to add an API to get ONE PIECE of data from another, long-established, already-API-driven web site. After SEVERAL meetings about this, they finally came back with an implementation date TWO YEARS after we started asking. Another group on the other side of the world asked ME to implement an API in MY application, to get entire TABLES of information. I did it in 2 days. I cannot stress hard enough that management and other people hate, hate, HATE seeing this sort of discrepancy in ability. But what am I supposed to do? Delay my delivery by months just to make people feel better? Heck, maybe I should. We nerds like to think that the tech world should be a meritocracy. On the internet of the 90's, it was. PG continues to live in a world where he can elevate insight above politics with money. Many, here, work in companies with proper technical tracks, which rewards insight handsomely. I don't (and won't move). And if you don't, you have to do yourself a favor and deal with that reality, and learn how to play the political game. It's the political game that will determine your impact, and "gate" your technical ability. It sucks to write that out, but it's a truism of the world.