You don't play with the ceo normally, but you play with others who play with the ceo (might be another level).

the important point is to be known a few levels up. That will get you places.

i'm not good at this, but people who are have gone farther than me.

if you're one or two strokes under par for every hole you'll be invited because you're a world class player, or more likely you don't want to get invited because who wants to play with people who suck that bad?

You get invited by actually trying to play. Not everyone who tries will get in, but it's a lot more likely that you'll succeed if you work the problem, instead of throwing up your hands in disgust at the world.

Non-technical skills matter. People and organizations have multi-faceted incentives. If you think the incentives of the people making decisions are leading to bad outcomes, then learn how to make that heard to them. Learn the situation as they see it, and use your own, better-aligned(?) incentives to improve the organization. And if it's not worth trying, so be it. But you need to accept that much of the world is you live in will continue to be shaped by the people who care enough to see "that hustle life nonsense" as a worthwhile trade.

I don't know if "victim blaming" [1] is the right wording, but I agree.

Doing weird shit like learning & going golfing just to keep idiots from making bad decisions shouldn't be part of our jobs.

[1] I don't think "victim" is a good term; we can always go get other jobs or drive a school bus instead