I'm with you. It seems like the articles points are, "How to survive at a dysfunctional company for a while." The most successful people I know are the go-getter type, not fake "look how busy I am" people, but people who really took on unique challenges and did them. Being a decent soldier and shirking off a lot of the nonsense would make you decently paid with a some job security, but I reckon it's not the way to get far ahead. But everyone has different priorities - it seems like a lot of people aren't look for much out of work besides some stability and a paycheck, then they enjoy their families, hobbies, friends, projects outside of work. That seems like it can be good too.