You can't afford to put 0% into understanding or playing "the game," but that doesn't mean it should be the majority or a significant part of your work. It nee

You can't afford to put 0% into understanding or playing "the game," but that doesn't mean it should be the majority or a significant part of your work. It needs to be enough that your boss/boss' boss can recall a positive association between you/your work and what they care about. Some of this is your manager/boss' job, but at least try to make it easier for them to do. This is also a decent self sanity check on figuring out if what you're doing is important to do (with regard to the business, etc)