This sounds great for research. Anecdotally, my most productive and innovative years were in companies where I was just kinda left to my own devices, and was ju

This sounds great for research. Anecdotally, my most productive and innovative years were in companies where I was just kinda left to my own devices, and was just expected to work on vaguely work-related things I like, together with my teammates, with zero direct input from my manager.