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I really agree with what you are saying, but counterintuitively buying “into the company vision as much as possible” seems to result in the most burnout for me when reality eventually hits.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to temper my natural tendency to go all-in with the reality that everything has some shit that sucks. I can understand the hope that there might be some psychological ease associated with dissociating yourself from the vision.

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Whether you're working W2, 1099, or an LLC, you're still running a business that trades in engineering labor, namely yours. That's the company whose vision you want to invest in.

If you like your current clients' vision too, great! That kind of alignment is always preferable. But remember that you're always first representing your own interests, because you're the only one at the table for whom those interests are paramount. Good clients understand and respect that. Bad clients are what you use to avoid starving while you're out finding good clients.

I can only control small parts of the tech side of a company. It’s silly to worry about things outside of your control so I definitely don’t “buy into the company vision”. I just deliver good software and hope everyone else knows what they’re doing so I don’t need to find a new job.

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