First, don't second guess them if they are paying you more, or see more value in your work than you do yourself. Maybe they are idiots, but it is not worth spen

First, don't second guess them if they are paying you more, or see more value in your work than you do yourself. Maybe they are idiots, but it is not worth spending time on things that are of concern to _them_. Second, you must have an internal compass; you must work on deriving satisfaction by contributing something of value. I used to tell a boss of mine, "I can't let my job interfere with my work" ... he still recalls it with a laugh 30 years later. I tell my students to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset wherever they are, even if they are part of a big company ... identify your customer (*), work on a problem that your customer cares about (the tech bits), show why your work is better than other solutions or is good for the customer (this involves networking and marketing your ideas), take it to an appropriate level that will fund the project and deploy it. You act as a startup within that ecosystem. (*) The customer could be your company's customer, or could be someone internal (a fellow dev, an HR person, a sales guy ) whatever. Your focus should be on providing value to _someone_.