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Life is essentially a big collection of systems or games, and choosing to play the wrong ones is worse than playing the right ones badly. You can learn tricks to get promoted at some place that has a shitty culture, shitty bosses, etc., but at the end of they day all you'll have done is won the wrong game.

This is an excellent piece of advice.

Of the five companies I have worked for, the two where I was disconnected from leadership were where I felt the least valued (and consequently less motivation). Of the three where I worked directly with leadership, I was treated with significantly more respect and felt a much stronger sense of purpose.

see relevant post from 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15740926

Can you give examples of companies that fit your description?

Apple under Jobs, Google, Facebook, MS under Gates, lots of smaller companies. Probably the ones where a founder is still CEO.

And the founder was a software engineer