As a software engineer I think you need a good balance of both. Strategy that never sees the light of day isn’t that good. Part of the great joy of the art of being a software engineer is putting your stuff out into the world and showing it.
But tbh I have had only reasonable success this way and you have to be ok with pushback. And gets is harder if others around you make it a point to pushback - instead of seeing if your solution solves the problem and letting you own the solution for a period of time.
Merit gets you nowhere anymore.
Dunno if you are bay area. The blog article is mostly about SF, but his points about work culture might apply to the broader bay area. Maybe issues like safety and cleanliness are better in other parts. Practically, for younger folks, "American dream" has to be realized in the big cities and they all probably have a similar story to SF.
Weren't tech companies historically in the San Jose area ie "Silicon Valley"? SF is relatively new on the "tech" scene.
Also the blog author's moving to Miami, he's gonna coast at the beach.
Thoughts on getting another gig or contract work? There seems to be plenty of software work that can be done remotely. Maybe you can coast thru 2 jobs.