[GianFabien]

I think that the advice needs to consider company, society culture and even family dynamics. We don't live in a bubble where we can make decisions entirely based upon our personal preferences.

In my experience (Sydney, Autralia) being a competent and productive IC in an organisation has limits. An alternative is to become a contractor and build up a reputation for delivering quality results on time and budget. You can easily out earn the managers and garner respect. However, the longer you stay with a client the more you get sucked into the meetings and politics.

The downside of contracting is that you need to continually evolve and technologically skate to where the puck will be. Doing so requires one to be clued into emerging fads as seen from the clients' perspective not your nerd's view.