There's this idea that half of the value created by a company is produced by the square root of the total number of employees. So you're experience is probably

There's this idea that half of the value created by a company is produced by the square root of the total number of employees. So you're experience is probably typical. In my experience, most developers fall into the category. Outside of the startup world, there's not really this huge push to move quickly. Established software works well enough that most companies can afford to have highly paid professionals dillydally through most of the work day. As long as everyone is doing something each day, and the right people can shift into low gear when urgent action is needed, things will move along pretty smoothly. People who are both very competent and can sustain large volumes of work tend to gravitate towards startups. There's really no point in working 10x faster than everyone else at an established company because someone else is going to be the bottleneck. > Have I just been incredibly lucky and every boss I have had is too incompetent to notice? They are probably just as good at BSing during meetings with their boss as you are in standups. They either talk up the accomplishments of other team members, discuss future plans, or some other team is the focus of the conversations that week.