I read it, and I feel now like I feel after watching a TED Talk. Which is to say, like I've just wasted a little chunk of my life.

Most of the time, your "real problem" cannot be directly solved, which is why you have another big problem to worry about. The engineer in the story is not getting his ideas accepted. If he was the CTO, his ideas would be accepted. Therefore, he can solve the real problem of seniority by becoming the CTO! How does he do that (eventually)? Maybe by proving he has great ideas, and he does that by implementing some of those ideas.

Oops, we made a circle.

So the real question is, how can we solve today's big problem without solving the "real problem"? Going ahead and implementing the guy's idea without permission is actually not a terrible way for him to get noticed, if it's a very good idea (which the exercise will also provide some insight on too).