Also make sure to brag using terms that non-technical people can understand and want to hear. Less "we stopped writing an in-house CRUD that was Django but worse" and more "we saved months and increased security by adopting a market leading solution and it works better with AI too".

If I can only go back in time to 2007 :)

While probably facetious, those with power (who you aim to smear and replace) will save themselves and work together to fire you ASAP. This is not a winnable battle nor strategy for success, unfortunately.

This 100%. I once got disciplined for insubordination for skip-leveling my "manager" and disregarding their instructions when she started telling people on the team to work on something totally non-critical, when the team had a demo in a few days that wasn't ready yet, with a client that was already unhappy, on an 8 million dollar contract.

I didn't hang around that place long.

Did they know something you didn't know, about that demo/client? i.e. misaligned incentives?

The opposite, they were 12 hours timeshifted and out of the loop managing a side hustle while I was interacting with the client daily.

See also, test the flammability of every bridge you cross.

Leave fire in your wake. If you quit, quit with a bang.